Virginia tops Georgia Tech 4-3 in ACC Quarterfinals

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia men’s tennis team advanced to the semifinals of the 2021 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship with a 4-3 victory against 8-seed Georgia Tech on Friday at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga.

Freshman Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Zurich, Switzerland) rallied from a 3-0 deficit in his third set to win a tiebreaker 7-5 to clinch the victory.

Top-seeded Virginia (19-2) will face 4-seed NC State on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the semifinals.

The tightness of the match started in doubles. The Cavaliers and Yellow Jackets (13-9) split decisions on courts two and three, leaving the point to be decided on court one. Senior Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) and junior William Woodall (Washington, D.C.) battled to a 6-6 tie before being edged 7-4 in a tiebreaker, giving the point to Georgia Tech.

In singles, senior Gianni Ross (Chicago, Ill.) knotted the score at one apiece after picking up a decisive 6-2, 6-1 victory on court five against Brandon McKinney. Söderlund gave UVA a 2-1 lead with a 6-4, 6-0 win against No. 20 Marcus McDaniel on court one. Georgia Tech picked up points with straight-set victories on courts six and three to take a 3-2 lead. Junior Ryan Goetz (Greenlawn, N.Y.) tied things up with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Keshav Chopra on court four.

On court two, von der Schulenburg had won his first set 6-4 against Andres Martin, but Martin took the second 6-3 and then edged out to a 3-0 lead in the third set. Martin was serving for the match with a 5-4 lead when von der Schulenburg broke his serve to draw even. After two more holds, it went to the tiebreaker which von der Schulenburg won 7-5.