Montes named ACC Player of the Year; Pedroso earns third-straight Coach of the Year

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia sophomore Iñaki Montes de la Torre was named the 2022 ACC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year and Andres Pedroso was named the ACC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year in honors announced Thursday by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Additionally, Montes and sophomore Chris Rodesch were named to the All-ACC First Team. Senior Ryan Goetz and sophomore Jeffrey von der Schulenburg earned second-team honors while senior Gianni Ross was named to the third team.

Montes (Pamplona, Spain) advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the ITA Singles Rankings to earn All-America honors. Montes posted a 22-5 record in singles that included a 6-0 record against players ranked in the top-25. He finished the year as the top-ranked singles player in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 5-1 record in conference singles and a 9-2 mark in doubles. He won the clinching point for the Cavaliers in the ACC Championship final, topping UNC’s Benjamin Sigoiun 7-3 in a tiebreaker to decide the third set. This is Montes’ second time being named to the All-Conference team after earning second-team honors as a freshman.

Rodesch (Angelsburg, Luxembourg) was an ITA All-American in singles, finishing the season ranked No. 20 with a 26-9 record. He earned the ACC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships as the highest-ranked player in the conference in both at the end of the regular season. He played on the top court for the Cavaliers, going 6-1 in the ACC. This is his first All-ACC honor.

Von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) was a perfect 5-0 in conference play this season, part of a 19-1 record in dual matches in the spring. He earned his second-straight invitation to the NCAA Singles Championship, advancing to the second round with a victory against No. 8 Clement Chidekh of Washington. He was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team in both singles and doubles and finished the season ranked No. 38 in the ITA Rankings. This is his second time earning All-ACC honors after being named to the first team as a freshman.

Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) was the Most Valuable Player of the ACC Championship and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team for doubles after clinching all three doubles points at the NCAA finals site with partner Montes. Goetz earned the ACC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Doubles Championship with Rodesch being ranked as high as No. 4 during the season. Goetz finished the year with a 32-9 record in doubles. Goetz was 11-1 in singles in ACC matches this year with an overall record of 25-7. This is his first time being named to an All-ACC team.

Ross (Chicago, Ill.) was named the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding player, also being named to the all-tournament team for both singles and doubles. He finished his career on a 12-match win streak in singles, going 24-2 on the year with a 10-1 record in conference play. In the final two seasons of his career, he was a combined 16-1 in singles in regular-season ACC matches, 4-0 in the ACC Championship and 9-0 in NCAA tournament singles matches. This is his first All-ACC honor.

Pedroso earned his third ACC Coach of the Year honor after leading the Cavaliers to the national championship and the program’s 14th overall ACC title. After starting the season with a 5-5 record, Virginia posted 23 consecutive wins to end the season and finish No. 1 in the final rankings.

This is Pedroso’s third-straight ACC Coach of the Year honor, having won it in 2019 and 2021. The honor was not given during the 2020 COVID-19-shortened season. This is the 10th time a UVA coach has earned the accolade.

This is the eighth time in program history that a Cavalier has been named the ACC Player of the Year and the third straight as Carl Söderlund earned the accolade in 2019 and 2021.

ACC Player of the Year: Iñaki Montes, Virginia

ACC Freshman of the Year: Luca Staeheli, NC State

ACC Coach of the Year: Andres Pedroso, Virginia

FIRST TEAM
Loris Pourroy**, Florida State
Andres Martin**, Georgia Tech
Etienne Donnet, Louisville
Dan Martin, Miami
Brian Cernoch***, North Carolina
Axel Nefve, Notre Dame
Iñaki Montes**, Virginia
Chris Rodesch, Virginia
Eduardo Nava**, Wake Forest

SECOND TEAM
Garrett Johns**, Duke
Marcus McDaniel**, Georgia Tech
Benjamin Sigouin****, North Carolina
Robin Catry, NC State
Rafa Izquierdo Luque, NC State
Ryan Goetz, Virginia
Jeffrey von der Schulenburg**, Virginia
Ryan Fishback, Virginia Tech
Melios Efstathiou, Wake Forest

THIRD TEAM
Andrew Zhang**, Duke
Andreja Petrovic, Florida State
Keshav Chopra, Georgia Tech
Mac Kiger, North Carolina
Luca Staeheli, NC State
Gianni Ross, Virginia
Jurabek Karimov, Wake Forest
Filippo Moroni, Wake Forest
Jakob Schnaitter, Wake Forest

*denotes number of career All-ACC honors