Men’s Tennis: No. 7 Virginia blanks No. 6 Tennessee 5-0 in NCAA Semifinals

The No. 7 Virginia men’s tennis team advanced to the finals of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championship with a 5-0 victory against No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday on the indoor courts of the Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign, Ill.

The Cavaliers (27-5) will take on No. 8 Kentucky (26-7) on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET in the championship match.

Virginia had a simultaneous clinch on singles courts two and six to result in the 5-0 final score.

Senior Gianni Ross and sophomore Jeffrey von der Schulenburg got the Cavaliers started with a 6-3 victory on doubles court three. Senior Ryan Goetz and sophomore Iñaki Montes clinched the point with a 6-2 victory on court two.

In singles, the Cavaliers won all six first sets, but other than Ross’s 6-1 victory on court five, all of the scores were close. Sophomore Chris Rodesch, von der Schulenburg and grad student Bar Botzer all won 7-5 while Montes and Goetz both went to tiebreakers in their first sets.

Ross went down a break early in his second set against Angel Diaz but rallied to win it 6-4 and put UVA ahead 2-0. Von der Schulenburg was serving up 6-5, but was broken by Emile Hudd to force a tiebreaker to decide the second set on court three. Von der Schulenburg won the breaker 7-2 to put UVA on the brink.

Three of the final four courts had the Cavaliers in a position to clinch. Montes was serving up 5-3, Goetz was serving up 5-2 and Botzer was returning up 5-2. For the final points, Martim Prata, Botzer’s opponent, served ahead of Montes, with Botzer winning seconds ahead of Montes finishing off No. 10 Johannus Monday on court two, giving UVA the 5-0 final.

Rodesch, who had dropped his second set against No. 3 Adam Walton on court one, had just gone up a break in the third set when play was halted.

Postmatch: Virginia coach Andres Pedroso

“We’re all grateful to be here, headed to the championship match. Right now, it’s mostly a mentality of gratitude. And tomorrow, it’s an attitude of let’s go out and take it. Let’s go out and get it and believe in ourselves. This is a lot of fun! Guys are enjoying it. We’re having a great time. But we are super grateful to be here.”

“Our message to the team was the same as the whole tournament, just make sure we match people’s energy. We’ve got great composure and we’re playing well. So we have to trust in our games. As long as we do those things, energy composure and maturity, we’re gonna be right there with anybody. That’s what they did today. That’s what they’ve been doing all tournament and hopefully, we can do that one more time tomorrow.”