DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 3 Virginia men’s tennis team (12-4, 4-0 ACC) won 6-1 against No. 15 Duke (11-7, 3-2 ACC) on Sunday (March 10) at the Ambler Tennis Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Virginia won the doubles point and took the first four singles matches to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Freshman Dylan Dietrich won the clinching point for the Cavaliers.
Duke opened the match with a 6-4 win on the top doubles court. Virginia evened the point with a 7-5 win by Dietrich and senior Alex Kiefer on three. Seniors Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won a tiebreaker 7-3 to take their match on two and secure the point for the Cavaliers.
In singles, Rodesch and Schulenburg picked up straight-set victories on courts two and four to put UVA ahead 3-0.
It was another 50 minutes before Dietrich won a tiebreaker 7-5 to take his second set and win his match against Andrew Zhang on three to clinch the victory.
Minutes after Dietrich clinched, sophomore Måns Dahlberg added a fifth point with a three-set win on court six. Dahlberg rebounded from a 6-1 loss in his opening set against Faris Khan with 6-3, 6-2 victories in sets two and three.
Duke won a three-set match on the top court to log a point.
Kiefer came back from down a break in his final set against Alexander Visser on court five to win 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 to close out the action.
MATCH NOTES
- This was the second meeting of the year between the teams. UVA topped Duke 4-1 in the Round of the 16 of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships
- Virginia has won the last eight meetings with the Blue Devils
- Three of Virginia’s four ACC victories have been against teams ranked in the top 25
- Virginia has won 45 consecutive conference matches. Their last ACC loss was against Wake Forest on March 17, 2019
- Virginia has not lost an outdoor match since falling against USC in the Round of 16 of the 2021 NCAA Championship (5/17/21)
ON THE HORIZON
- The Cavaliers return home next weekend to host Louisville on Friday, March 15 at 3 p.m. and Notre Dame on Sunday, March 17 at 1 p.m.
#3 Virginia 6, #15 Duke 1
Singles competition
- #47 Garrett Johns (DU) def. #38 Inaki Montes (UVA) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2
- #9 Chris Rodesch (UVA) def. #66 Pedro Rodenas (DU) 6-3, 6-2
- #61 Dylan Dietrich (UVA) def. Andrew Zhang (DU) 7-5, 7-6 (5)
- #72 Jeffrey von der Schu (UVA) def. Connor Krug (DU) 6-4, 6-3
- Alexander Kiefer (UVA) def. Alexander Visser (DU) 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4
- Mans Dahlberg (UVA) def. Faris Khan (DU) 1-6, 6-3,…