Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

The Virginia men’s tennis team has been crowned the 2026 NCAA champion. The fourth-seeded Cavaliers defeated second-seeded Texas, 4-3, on Sunday at the Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., to earn the seventh NCAA title in program history.

After advancing to the finals for the ninth time in the last 15 championships, Virginia now holds the fourth-most team titles in the NCAA. The title was the first for the Cavaliers since 2023, when they repeated as NCAA champions.

UVA’s run in the NCAA Championship began with two weekends of home tennis, as the Cavaliers (28-4) hosted both the Charlottesville Regional and Super Regional. After wins over Rider, Columbia and South Carolina, the Hoos headed down to Athens, the site of the tournament’s final three rounds.

A 4-1 win over fifth-seeded Mississippi State in Thursday’s quarterfinals set the stage for a 4-3 comeback victory over top-seeded Wake Forest in the semifinals on Saturday.

When No. 1 Dylan Dietrich clinched Virginia’s 4-3 win over Texas, he sealed the Cavaliers’ six-match run to the title.

Sunday’s action began with a rocky, but not unfamliar, start for Virginia. The Cavaliers dropped the doubles point to Texas marking the third time they’d started a match with a deficit in their NCAA Championship run.

Needing four singles wins, Virginia took three of six first sets. No. 21 Keegan Rice finished first, cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 win over No. 41 Kalin Ivanovski on court two to tie the match at one apiece.

Texas briefly regained the lead with a win on court four, but a gutsy 6-4, 6-4 win from sophomore Stiles Brockett on court five evened the match at 2-2.

The Longhorns (29-7) continued to land blows, this time winning court six to push their lead to 3-2. Nearly simultaneously, Dietrich recovered from a dropped first set to take the second and force a decisive third on the top court and No. 114 Jangjun Kim was entering a second-set tiebreaker on court three.

Kim had taken his first set 6-1 and, in order to guarantee Virginia the critical third point, was battling to win his match in straight sets. After a thriller of a tiebreaker, Kim delivered the 7-6 (9) win over No. 35 Sebastian Eriksson, meaning the fate of the match rested entirely on court one.

In the lone match to require a third set in the sweltering Georgia heat, Dietrich gritted out a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow top-five ranked player, No. 3 Sebastian Gorzny, to clinch the match for Virginia.

MATCH NOTES

  • Virginia won its seventh NCAA team championship.
  • The title was the first for the Cavaliers since 2023, when they repeated as NCAA champions.
  • The Cavaliers, previously tied with Georgia, now have the fourth-most team titles in the NCAA.
  • Virginia was the No. 4 seed in the tournament and the No. 5 team in the ITA team rankings.
  • The Cavaliers competed in the finals for the ninth time in the last 15 championships.
  • Virginia defeated Texas twice this season, previously downing the Longhorns 4-1 in January nonconference action.
  • Dietrich went 24-1 on court one this spring season.
  • Rice led the team with a 34-6 record, including a 20-3 effort on courts one and two.
  • Kim finished with a 25-9 record, including a 16-6 mark in the spring.
  • Brockett went 25-14 with a 14-9 record on courts four through six.
  • After going 5-0 in the NCAA Championship and clinching the title match, junior Dylan Dietrich was named the Tournament MVP.
  • Dietrich, along with sophomores Keegan Rice and Jangjun Kim, were named to the Men’s All-Tournament Team for singles.
  • The NCAA team title was the 37th in the history of UVA Athletics.

FROM HEAD COACH ANDRES PEDROSO

“Incredible week here in Athens. Just an amazing tournament. As I said after the match, it is a magical place to play college tennis with the best teams in the country. Thank you to the University of Georgia and the NCAA and everyone that worked so hard to put it together. I’ really proud of my team. These guys have come a long way this year. We’ve had a lot of conversations. I’ve given a lot of speeches. We’ve had a lot of meals together. What you saw out there today is an accumulation of all those moments and all of those conversations and all of those interactions that we had with one another. That’s our culture out there, just a never say die attitude. We try to do it in a classy way and I think that’s what these guys did.”

On what you vocalize to your players in the final moments: “I was telling him, let’s see the culture. Show me the culture. Put it on display. That’s what I was telling him. Give everything you can to Dylan [Dietrich]. Show how much you love him. Show him how close you are to him. Show him the friendship you have with him. Show him that you’ve got his back no matter what. Show me the culture. Show me the culture.”

On where the Virginia magic comes from: “I think some of it is the winning tradition that we can draw from and a lot of stories that I can tell about the former players and what they’ve done to put seven stars on our back. Now, seven stars on our back, It’s hard to believe. There’s just so many stories, so many former players that I talk to them about all the time. I don’t want to say it’s brainwashing because I really believe it when I tell them, I make sure they believe that when they walk on the grounds at the University of Virginia for the first time. That we play our best tennis in May and we are the closest team. We take pride in that. We’re really tough out. I give the former players all the credit for that, for that winning tradition and all the stories that I can draw from for these guys to pump them up.”

FROM JUNIOR DYLAN DIETRICH

On the importance of mental toughness: “There was lots of ups and downs in today’s match. I think today it was more important than ever to stay focused on what you can influence. Your opponent will play some great tennis. Just hang in there and believe that the work you’ve done over the past year will pay off in the end, and it did.”

On his takeaways from the NCAA Tournament: “It’s not about the tennis. [Head Coach Andres Pedroso] loves that. He was telling us all year, ‘It’s not about the tennis.’ It’s really not. It’s just about giving yourself the best chance by hanging in there mentally. Trying to make one more ball. Trying to deal with when things don’t go your way, when the other guy plays great. Just resetting before every point. It’s all in the head, ultimately at this level, I feel like.”

On what’s next for him: “One more year. Trying to squeeze everything out of this UVA experience with the coaches, staff.”

VIRGINIA 4, TEXAS 3

Singles
1. #1 Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. #3 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4
2. #21 Keegan Rice (VA) def. #41 Kalin Ivanovski (TEX) 6-1, 6-3
3. #114 Jangjun Kim (VA) def. #35 Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 6-1, 7-6 (11-9)
4. #89 Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) def. #58 Andres Santamarta Roig (VA) 6-1, 6-4
5. Stiles Brockett (VA) def. #102 Abel Forger (TEX) 6-4, 6-4
6. Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-3, 7-5

Doubles
1. #12 Mans Dahlberg/Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Kalin Ivanovski/Abel Forger (TEX) 6-3
2. #21 Sebastian Gorzny/Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Andres Santamarta Roig/Jangjun Kim (VA) 6-4
3. #46 Oliver Ojakaar/Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) def. Stiles Brockett/Keegan Rice (VA) 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (2,4,5,6,3,1)

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Men’s Tennis: No. 4 Wahoos rally to upset No. 1 Wake, 4-3; will face No. 2 Texas for NCAA title Sunday

(updated )

The fourth-seeded Virginia men’s tennis team completed a comeback for the ages against top-seeded Wake Forest on Saturday in Athens.