Men’s Tennis: No. 3 UVA gets past North Carolina, 4-2

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 3 Virginia men’s tennis team won 4-2 against North Carolina on Friday at the Chewning Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina took the doubles point, but Virginia picked up four singles victories to down the Tar Heels. Senior Alexander Kiefer won the clinching point for the Cavaliers (11-4, 3-0 ACC).

Senior Iñaki Montes and freshman Dylan Dietrich opened the match with a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles, but the Tar Heels (8-4, 2-1) countered with a 6-2 win on the top court. The deciding court went to a tiebreaker, with UNC winning 7-4 to take the match’s early 1-0 lead.

Senior Chris Rodesch tied the match with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 1 against Will Jansen, but UNC retook the lead a minute later with a win on court four. Montes tied it up 2-2 with a 6-2, 6-2 win on court two.

Kiefer, who had dropped his first set 6-3 against Will Peters on court five, won his second set 6-2 to force a third set just as freshman Dylan Dietrich started a tiebreaker to decide his second set. Dietrich took the breaker 7-5 against Phillip Jordan, giving him the match and putting UVA ahead 3-2.

Kiefer sailed through his third set 6-0 to secure the victory.

MATCH NOTES

• The Tar Heels are ranked No. 30 in this week’s ITA team ranking
• Virginia has won 44 consecutive conference matches. Their last ACC loss was against Wake Forest on March 17, 2019
• Virginia has not lost an outdoor match since falling against USC in the Round of 16 of the 2021 NCAA Championship (5/17/21)

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers close the weekend playing at No. 15 Duke on Sunday at 2 p.m.

VIRGINIA 4, NORTH CAROLINA 2
Singles
1. #9 Chris Rodesch (VA) def. #56 Will Jansen (NC) 6-3, 6-3
2. #38 Iñaki Montes (VA) def. #125 Benjamin Kittay (NC) 6-2, 6-2
3. #61 Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. #110 Phillip Jordan (NC) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
4. #80 Karl Poling (NC) def. #72 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (VA) 6-2, 6-4
5. Alexander Kiefer (VA) def. Will Peters (NC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-0
6. Anuj Watane (NC) vs. Måns Dahlberg (VA) 7-6 (7-5), 4-3, unfinished

Doubles
1. Benjamin Kittay/Phillip Jordan (NC) def. #24 Chris Rodesch/Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (VA) 6-2
2. Will Jansen/Karl Poling (NC) def. James Hopper/Edoardo Graziani (VA) 7-6 (7-4)
3. Iñaki Montes/Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Patrick Schoen/Peter Murphy (NC) 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,4,2,3,5)