Dylan Dietrich, the 2026 ACC Player of the Year, rallied from a third-set deficit to put away the final match of the day, lifting Virginia to the 2026 national title with a 4-3 win over second-ranked Texas on Sunday.
It was the second comeback win of the weekend for UVA (28-4), the #4 national seed, which had to rally to win the final three matches in Saturday’s semifinal win over top-ranked Wake Forest.
In Sunday’s national title matchup, Texas scored the doubles point, taking all three head-to-head matchups.
Keegan Rice, Jangjun Kim and Stiles Brockett posted straight-set wins in their singles matches to get the ‘Hoos to three points on the day.
Texas got wins for Lucas Marionneau (over Mans Dahlberg) and Oliver Ojakaar (over Andres Santamarta) to get the match to square.
Dietrich lost the first set in his match with Sebastian Gorzny by tiebreaker, then forced a third set with a 6-4 second-set win.
In the deciding set, Gorzny got an early break to go up 3-1, before Dietrich rallied to win four straight, then after dropping a game to Gorzny on serve, served the match out, getting the final point on a service winner when Gorzny returned a second serve into the net.
Quotes: Dylan Dietrich
The importance of mental toughness: “There was lots of ups and downs in today’s match. I think today it was more important than ever to stay focused on what you can influence. Your opponent will play some great tennis. Just hang in there and believe that the work you’ve done over the past year will pay off in the end, and it did.”
Takeaways from the NCAA Tournament: “It’s not about the tennis. [Head Coach Andres Pedroso] loves that. He was telling us all year, ‘It’s not about the tennis.’ It’s really not. It’s just about giving yourself the best chance by hanging in there mentally. Trying to make one more ball. Trying to deal with when things don’t go your way, when the other guy plays great. Just resetting before every point. It’s all in the head, ultimately at this level, I feel like.”
Quotes: UVA head coach Andres Pedroso
“Incredible week here in Athens. Just an amazing tournament. As I said after the match, it is a magical place to play college tennis with the best teams in the country. Thank you to the University of Georgia and the NCAA and everyone that worked so hard to put it together. I’ really proud of my team. These guys have come a long way this year. We’ve had a lot of conversations. I’ve given a lot of speeches. We’ve had a lot of meals together. What you saw out there today is an accumulation of all those moments and all of those conversations and all of those interactions that we had with one another. That’s our culture out there, just a never say die attitude. We try to do it in a classy way and I think that’s what these guys did.”
What you vocalize to your players in the final moments: “I was telling him, let’s see the culture. Show me the culture. Put it on display. That’s what I was telling him. Give everything you can to Dylan [Dietrich]. Show how much you love him. Show him how close you are to him. Show him the friendship you have with him. Show him that you’ve got his back no matter what. Show me the culture. Show me the culture.”
Where the Virginia magic comes from: “I think some of it is the winning tradition that we can draw from and a lot of stories that I can tell about the former players and what they’ve done to put seven stars on our back. Now, seven stars on our back, It’s hard to believe. There’s just so many stories, so many former players that I talk to them about all the time. I don’t want to say it’s brainwashing because I really believe it when I tell them, I make sure they believe that when they walk on the grounds at the University of Virginia for the first time. That we play our best tennis in May and we are the closest team. We take pride in that. We’re really tough out. I give the former players all the credit for that, for that winning tradition and all the stories that I can draw from for these guys to pump them up.”
#4 Virginia 4, #1 Texas 3
Singles competition
- #1 Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. #3 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4
- #21 Keegan Rice (VA) def. #41 Kalin Ivanovski (TEX) 6-1, 6-3
- #114 Jangjun Kim (VA) def. #35 Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 6-1, 7-6 (11-9)
- #89 Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) def. #58 Andres Santamarta Roig (VA) 6-1, 6-4
- Stiles Brockett (VA) def. #102 Abel Forger (TEX) 6-4, 6-4
- Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-3, 7-5
Doubles competition
- #12 Mans Dahlberg/Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Kalin Ivanovski/Abel Forger (TEX) 6-3
- #21 Sebastian Gorzny/Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Andres Santamarta Roig/Jangjun Kim (VA) 6-4
- #46 Oliver Ojakaar/Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) def. Stiles Brockett/Keegan Rice (VA) 6-2
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Chris Graham
