Men’s Tennis: Rodesch comes up short in NCAA Singles semifinals

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia men’s tennis junior Chris Rodesch had his run in the NCAA Singles Championship come to an end with a loss in the semifinals.

Rodesch, a 9-16 seed, won his first set 6-2 against No. 2 Ethan Quinn of Georgia on Friday but dropped the final two sets 6-2 and 6-4.

The match was played on the indoor courts at the USTA National Campus due to an afternoon rain storm.

The loss snapped a streak of 17 straight wins for Rodesch in his completed singles matches. This was his first loss since a March 12 setback against Notre Dame’s Sebastian Dominko and only his second loss since February 19.

Rodesch ends his season with a 31-6 record in singles, including going 21-3 in dual matches. He earns All-America honors in singles for the second straight year.

On Monday, the day after Rodesch was named the MVP of the NCAA team championship, he faced No. 39 Peter Makk of USC in the singles opener, downing the Trojan 7-6 (4), 6-2 in a rain-delayed match that ended after 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. On Tuesday evening, he faced No. 59 Joshua Lapadat of Kentucky. The match was moved indoors because of more bad weather with Rodesch prevailing 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2). In Wednesday’s Round of 16, he topped No. 32 Axel Nefve of Florida 6-4, 6-4 before topping No. 41 Alex Bernard of Ohio State 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

This is the 10th time in program history a UVA player has advanced to the semifinals of the championship and the first since Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won the 2017 title.

This is Rodesch’s second time playing in the singles tournament. He fell in the second round last season.

Three other members of the Virginia men’s tennis team also earned invitations to compete in the NCAA individual championships. Juniors Iñaki Montes and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg earned at-large bids into the singles championship. Montes and grad student Ryan Goetz earned the Atlantic Coast Conference’s automatic qualification into the doubles championship as the top-ranked team in the ACC.

Montes fell in the first round of singles against No. 42 Murphy Cassone of Arizona State. Cassone is one of the tournament’s other three semifinalists.

Von der Schulenburg opened play facing the opponent he had faced the previous day in the NCAA team championship, JJ Tracy of Ohio State. Von der Schulenburg once again topped Tracy, this time by a 6-4, 6-4 score. He fell in the second round against the tournament’s top seed, Eliot Spizzirri of Texas.

The men’s doubles championship was delayed a full day because of rain. When they finally took the court on Wednesday, they took their first set 6-3 against No. 23 Arthur Fery and Nishesh Basavareddy of Stanford on the outdoor courts, but the match moved indoors because of rain, and they dropped the second 6-0 indoors. The Cardinal won the super tiebreaker 10-5 to take the match.

Goetz and Montes were a 5-8 seed in the championship which earned them All-America honors in doubles.

Singles
64 #42 Murphy Cassone (Arizona State) def. #26 Iñaki Montes (Virginia) 6-3, 7-6
64 #49 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Virginia) def. #22 JJ Tracy (Ohio State) 6-6, 6-4
64 #9 Chris Rodesch (Virginia) def. #39 Peter Makk (Southern California) 7-6, 6-2
32 #1 Eliot Spizziri (University of Texas) def. #49 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Virginia) 6-3, 6-4
32 #9 Chris Rodesch (Virginia) def. #59 Joshua Lapadat (Kentucky) 7-5, 5-7, 7-6
16 #9 Chris Rodesch (Virginia) def. #32 Axel Nefve (Florida) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
QF #9 Chris Rodesch (Virginia) def. #41 Alexander Bernard (Ohio State) 6-3, 6-4
SF #2 Ethan Quinn (Georgia) def. #9 Chris Rodesch (Virginia) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4

Doubles
#23 Arthur Fery/Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford) def. #8 Iñaki Montes/Ryan Goetz (Virginia) 3-6, 6-0, 10-5