NEW YORK – The No. 6 Virginia men’s tennis team (8-4) suffered a 4-0 loss against No. 1 Ohio State (12-0) in the semifinals of the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Sunday (Feb. 18) at Columbia’s Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center in New York, N.Y.
In the second meeting this month between the two teams, the Buckeyes won the doubles point and collected singles wins on courts three, five and six to advance to Monday’s championship match.
Grad students Edoardo Graziani and James Hopper opened the match with a 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles, but seniors Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg were edged 6-4 on court one to even it up. On the deciding court, senior Iñaki Montes and freshman Dylan Dietrich played Jack Anthrop to 6-6, forcing a tiebreaker that the Buckeyes won 7-2 to take the point.
Ohio State won 6-2, 6-2 on court five and 6-0, 6-3 on court six to go up 3-0.
The rest of the singles courts were much tighter. Rodesch dropped his first set on the top court but won his second to go to a third set. Dietrich and von der Schulenburg had both won their first sets but dropped their second to also go to third sets. Von der Schulenburg was up a break in the third set when play was abandoned.
Montes saved one match point down 5-3 in the second set, winning a deciding point to keep his match alive, but No. 7 JJ Tracy won the next game to clinch the victory for the Buckeyes.
FROM HEAD COACH ANDRES PEDROSO
“Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Their consistency over the years at the top of college tennis is something to be truly admired and applauded. Their coaches do a great job, and today they were the better team.”
“I hope people appreciate the toughness, grit, and frankly, the magic that Iñaki Montes de la Torre put on display this weekend at the ITA Indoors serving underhand. I also need to mention the incredible overall performance of our first year, Dylan Dietrich. All I can say is I’m proud and grateful that he chose the University of Virginia.”
“This team knows how to evolve, transform and improve through the process of a college tennis season. Our fourth years are leading the charge. We left it all out there in NYC, and as long as our guys continue to do that in our training and competitions, we will continue to progress. I’m proud of our Wahoos!”
MATCH NOTES
- Virginia is ranked No. 6 in the ITA team rankings but is the 4-seed in the championship. Ohio State is ranked No. 1 in…