CARY, N.C.– The Virginia men’s tennis team (22-5) was edged 4-3 by Florida State (21-7) in the final of the 2024 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship on Sunday (April 21) on the indoors courts of the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C.
Top-seeded Virginia held a 3-1 lead in the match, but the 6-seed Seminoles came back to tie it 3-3, leaving the championship to be decided on the top singles court. Championship MVP Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc won the clinching point to give Florida State its first-ever ACC title.
Senior Iñaki Montes and grad student James Hopper started the match with a 6-0 win at No. 1 doubles. Florida State took court three, but seniors Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won 6-3 on court two to give UVA a 1-0 lead.
Senior Alex Kiefer made it 2-0 with a quick 6-2, 6-3 win on singles court five.
Florida State’s Jamie Connel gave the Seminoles their first point. He took the first set 6-4 against von der Schulenburg. Von der Schulenburg was up a break in the second set, but Connel broke back, and the set ended up in a 6-6 tie. Connel took the tiebreaker 7-0 to give a point to the Seminoles.
Those were the only two courts to be decided in straight sets.
Freshman Dylan Dietrich put the Cavaliers ahead 3-1 with a win on court four. Dietrich won his first set 6-3 against Youcef Rihane, but dropped the second 6-3. He took the third by that same score to make it 3-1 UVA.
Montes had dropped his first set 6-2 against Loris Pourroy on court two but took the second 6-1 to force a third. Pourroy broke Montes’ serve once to take the third set 6-3, making the overall score 3-2.
Sophomore Måns Dahlberg had won a tiebreaker 7-1 to take his first set against Alex Bulte on court six, but Bulte came back and won the second two sets 6-3, 6-2 to tie the match at 3-3.
The top court featured Rodesch, the No. 4-ranked singles player, and No. 5 Cornut-Chauvinc. The first set came down to a tiebreaker, with Cornut-Chauvinc taking it 7-4. The second set came down to another tiebreaker, this time with Rodesch taking it 7-4. In the deciding set, Rodesch broke Cornut-Chauvinc’s serve to take a 3-1 lead. Rodesch was serving up 5-4, but was broken on a deuce point to make it 5-5. Cornut-Chauvinc won the final two points to clinch the victory.
The NCAA Selection Show will stream live on NCAA.com on Monday, April 29, at 6 p.m.
FROM HEAD COACH ANDRES PEDROSO
“Full credit to Florida State. I’m so happy for that program. They fought so hard. Our guys…