Four from UVA men’s tennis earn ITA regional honors

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia men’s tennis players Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) have been named the Atlantic Region Senior and Rookie of the Year, respectively, as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Monday (June 14). Head coach Andres Pedroso was named the Wilson ITA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year while associate head coach Scott Brown was named the ITA Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year.

Söderlund repeated as the ACC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year, just the second Cavalier to twice win the honor. He was named the MVP of the ACC Championship after leading UVA to both the conference’s regular-season and tournament titles. The All-American has been ranked nationally in the top-10 in both singles and doubles this year as he helped elevate his team to a top-three national ranking. He was also named both the UVA male athlete and male scholar-athlete of the year at this year’s Hoos Choice Awards. He is the third Cavalier to be named the top senior in the region joining Ryan Shane (2016) and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (2017).

Von der Schulenburg was an All-ACC first-team honoree in his rookie season, earning a berth in the NCAA Singles Championship. He was the No. 2 ranked singles player in the region (topped only by Söderlund) and was as high as No. 14 in the ITA national singles rankings this season. He began his collegiate career by winning his first seven singles matches, including three wins against ranked opponents, and had a mid-season streak of 11-straight doubles wins (with Iñaki Montes) in completed matches. He finished his inaugural campaign with 16 singles victories and 17 doubles wins. He is the 14th player in program history to earn the honor, a list that includes his teammates Söderlund (2017) and Gianni Ross (2018).

Pedroso and Brown led the Cavaliers to a perfect 12-0 record in the ACC and their first regular-season title since taking over the program in 2018. The two then guided the Cavaliers to hoisting the ACC Championship trophy for the 13th time in program history. Earlier in the season, Pedroso and Brown led the Cavaliers to earning a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship after being a No. 3 seed in the Kickoff Weekend matches and capped the year by advancing to the NCAA Championship Round of 16.

Pedroso, a two-time ACC Coach of the Year (2020-21), was named the 2014 ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year and was twice honored as the ITA Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year (2012 and 2014). This is his first ITA Atlantic Region honor as a head coach. This is Brown’s first ITA regional accolade. Virginia head coaches have been named the top in the region eight times in program history with seven honors for assistant coaches.

The honors are voted on by a regional awards committee.

The regional awards are voted on by the regional awards committee. By virtue of winning the regional honors, all are eligible for the respective national awards which will be announced next Monday, June 21.