Men’s Tennis: Four Cavaliers earn invitations to the NCAA Individual Championships

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Four members of the Virginia men’s tennis team have earned invitations to compete in the NCAA Individuals Championships, being held May 23-28 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois, after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 20-22. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will serve as host.

Sophomore Chris Rodesch (Angelsberg, Luxembourg) earned the Atlantic Coast Conference’s automatic qualification into the singles championship while also earning the ACC’s automatic qualification into the doubles championship with senior Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.). Sophomores Iñaki Montes (Pamplona, Spain) and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) earned at-large bids into the singles championship.

This will be the second time von der Schulenburg has competed in the NCAA Singles Championship. It is the first invitation to the NCAA Individual Championships for the other three.

Rodesch is the top-ranked singles player in the conference at No. 29 in last week’s ITA rankings. Rodesch and Goetz are the top-ranked doubles team, ranking as high as No. 4 this season.

Match-ups and the complete singles and doubles brackets will be announced the day before the start of the tournament.

Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 started singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.

Automatic qualification into the Division I doubles championship is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 60 for eligible/entered doubles teams. For conferences with more than one doubles team within the ITA Top 60 eligible/entered doubles teams, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which doubles team is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All doubles teams must have started a minimum of 10 doubles matches, with a minimum of four matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.