CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s tennis team (26-4) logged a 4-0 victory against Ole Miss (18-10) in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championship on Sunday (May 7) at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar’s Head Resort.
The Cavaliers have now advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 in 17 of the last 18 championships.
Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won the clinching point for the Cavaliers.
Virginia won a tight doubles point to start the match. Chris Rodesch and von der Schulenburg won 7-5 on court two followed by a 6-4 victory from Iñaki Montes and William Woodall on court one to clinch the point. Third doubles was tied 5-5 when play was abandoned.
Ryan Goetz raced through a 6-2, 6-0 victory against Lukas Engelhardt on singles court four to give UVA a 2-0 lead before half of the first sets were even over.
The Cavaliers got through all of the first sets in singles right before the rains came. After a twenty-minute delay, play resumed indoors.
Alex Kiefer had a tight first set against Noah Schlagenhauf on court five, picking up a late break to win it 7-5 and then went 6-1 in the second set to give UVA a 3-0 advantage.
After trailing 4-0 in his first set against Simon Junk on court three, von der Schulenburg came back to tie things up. The set was decided in a tiebreaker with von der Schulenburg winning 8-6. He took the second set 6-1 to clinch the victory.
“I thought Ole Miss played really well across the board and our guys just hung in there and played really solid,” said head coach Andres Pedroso. “ I don’t think we played our best in doubles, but I’m happy with the way they kept their composure and just fought till the end. So we pulled that out and then got a good start to singles. But Ole Miss was tough. All these SEC schools in the tournament, they fight until the end, and they’re scrappy, and so we knew what we were gonna get from them today.”
Jeffrey von der Schulenburg speaks to the media after today’s 4-0 win against Ole Miss #NCAAMTEN #GoHoos⚔️ pic.twitter.com/a8mOUY7xmB
— Virginia Men’s Tennis (@UVAMensTennis) May 7, 2023
The Cavaliers will take an 18-match win streak into next weekend’s Round of 16. Virginia will host Duke at the Virginia Tennis Facility in the Super Regional on Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. The winner of that match will advance to the championship rounds of the tournament being held May 18-20 at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla
Virginia is the No. 5…