No. 7 Virginia Men’s Tennis faces No. 2 Florida Thursday in NCAA Quarterfinals

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

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The No. 7 Virginia men’s tennis team will face No. 2 Florida in the quarterfinals of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championship on Thursday, May 19 at 8 p.m. ET at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.

HOW TO FOLLOW

  • All matches will stream live on the TennisOne App
  • Live scoring will be available through links posted on VirginiaSports.com

NCAA SEMIFINALS AND FINALS

  • The winner of the Virginia/Florida match will face No. 3 Baylor or No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday, May 21 at 2 p.m. ET
  • The National Championship match will take place on Sunday, May 22 at 4 p.m. ET
  • All top eight seeds advanced to the quarterfinals
  • The opposite side of the bracket includes No. 1 TCU, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Michigan and No. 8 Kentucky

NOTING THE CAVALIERS

  • The Cavaliers (25-5) bring a 20-match win streak into the quarterfinals. The team’s last loss was a 4-2 setback against Florida in the consolation matches at ITA Indoors on Feb. 19
  • Senior Ryan Goetz brings an 11-match win streak into the championship. He is a perfect 10-0 at No. 4 singles this season
  • Sophomore Jeffrey von der Schulenburg is 17-1 in dual matches with a perfect 8-0 record at No. 3
  • Senior Gianni Ross is playing in his fourth NCAA Championship. He is 21-2 this season with 19 of those wins coming in dual matches. Ross has won his last nine matches and is 7-0 at No. 5 singles
  • Sophomore Chris Rodesch earned the ACC’s automatic qualification into the NCAA Singles Championship as the highest-ranked singles player in the conference at No. 30. Rodesch has 15 wins this season against ranked opponents and is 9-1 in his last 10 completed matches
  • Bar Botzer won the clinching match for the Cavaliers in the Super Regional. Botzer is in his first season with the Cavaliers after playing three years at Wake Forest. He was a freshman on the 2018 Demon Decon NCAA Champion squad, winning the clinching match in the final
  • Goetz and Iñaki Montes are 8-1 at No. 2 doubles this season and 16-4 overall
  • In the first meeting of the year between UVA and Florida, von der Schulenburg and Gianni Ross won their matches on courts three and six to give UVA its two points. Goetz was leading 4-1 in the third set against Josh Goodger when play was abandoned. Ben Shelton edged Chris Rodesch 7-5 in the third set on court two to earn the victory for the team

VIRGINIA & THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • The ACC Champion Cavaliers earned the conference’s automatic qualification into the championship. Virginia is the only ACC team remaining in the tournament
  • Virginia has won four NCAA titles, including three-consecutive from 2015-17
  • Virginia won its first title in 2013, the last time Illinois hosted the championship, edging UCLA 4-3
  • The Cavaliers have advanced to the semifinals in 10 of the last 14 championships and have made six of the last 10 finals
  • A team from the ACC has won four of the last six championships
  • UVA was one of six schools to have both men’s and women’s teams advance to the Round of 16 (North Carolina, NC State, Texas, Stanford and Florida are the others) but is the only school with both its men’s and women’s teams in Champaign
  • It is the third time in program history that both the men’s and women’s teams have advanced to the quarterfinals (2014, 2016, 2022)

SCOUTING FLORIDA

  • The Gators (26-2) are the reigning NCAA champions, defeating Baylor 4-1 in last year’s final in Orlando
  • Florida brings a 21- match win streak into the championship. Its last loss was in the first round at ITA Indoors, being edged 4-3 by No. 14 Texas on Feb. 18
  • Florida has eight wins against teams ranked in the top-10 this season including a 5-2 win against then-ranked No. 1 Tennessee on Mar. 13
  • Florida defeated two ACC teams, Miami and North Carolina, both by 4-0 scores to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals
  • Ben Shelton is the top seed in the NCAA Singles Championship but is ranked No. 2 in the latest ITA rankings. He is 30-5 this season
  • Sam Riffice, the 2021 NCAA Singles Champion, is No. 28 in the latest ITA rankings with a 19-5 record

ON THE HORIZON

  • The NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will take place May 23-28 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.