No. 7 Virginia competing at ITA National Team Indoor Championship

Posted on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, 2:28 pm

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 7 Virginia men’s tennis team (5-0) travels to Champaign, Ill., to compete at the 46th annual ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship Presented by Oracle, Friday through Sunday, Feb. 12-14, at the Atkins Tennis Center.

Virginia will play in the opening match of the tournament on Friday, Feb. 12, taking on three-seed TCU at 10 a.m. ET.

The 46th annual ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship Presented by Oracle showcases eight of the top men’s Division I teams in the three-day tournament to crown an indoor national champion.

Seven of the eight teams in the field earned a spot by advancing out of four-team ITA Kickoff Weekend regionals. Illinois earned an automatic berth as the host institution.

Participating schools: No. 1 Southern California, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 3 TCU, No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Texas, No. 7 Virginia, No. 10 Tennessee, Illinois.

This year’s field has been halved from the usual 16 teams to just eight, and the four-day tournament shortened to three days.

Each team will play three matches in either the championship or consolation bracket. The championship final is scheduled for Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

Men’s Tennis Notes

The Cavaliers have won six ITA National Team Indoor Championships, including four-straight from 2008 to 2011 and most recently in 2017 when the tournament was held in Charlottesville. Only Stanford (12) and UCLA (7) have won more team indoor titles
Virginia earned a spot in the tournament with a 4-1 upset-win over then-ranked No. 3 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Virginia was originally the No. 4 seed in Columbus, but No. 3 seed Texas Tech dropped out. Middle Tennessee State was added to the four-team pod, bumping UVA up to the No. 3 seed and changing the first-round opponent to Iowa instead of Ohio State. UVA blanked Iowa 4-0 in the opener
Virginia was ranked No. 22 in the preseason ITA team rankings, but has risen to No. 7 after the win over the Buckeyes and a decisive 5-2 win over No. 14 Wake Forest last week in Charlottesville
Virginia is 5-0 to start the season for the first time since 2017 when it went 17-0 to start the year
Virginia ended the shortened 2020 campaign winning its last six matches, giving it an 11-match win streak heading into the weekend
Two freshmen have started their careers with perfect records in singles: Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) is 5-0 this season, playing on courts 2-4, and Iñaki Montes (Pamplona, Spain) is 4-0 while also alternating in the lineup between courts 2-4
Grad student Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) played on UVA’s 2017 National Team Indoor champion squad. He played three-singles in the tournament. Three of his matches were abandoned, but he did have a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over UNC’s Simon Soendergaard in the semifinals to send UVA to the championship match against Ohio State
Söderlund is 2-0 in singles this season (with two abandoned matches). He is ranked No. 29 in the ITA rankings
Virginia is 4-1 all-time against TCU, including a 4-1 victory last season in Charlottesville when the Cavaliers were unranked and the Horned Frogs were No. 11. TCU’s last win over UVA came in 2004