No. 8 Virginia hosted Old Dominion at the Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville on Saturday, defeating the Monarchs 6-1 after dominating the singles matches. The Cavaliers (4-0, 0-0 ACC) continued their momentum from a big upset victory over No. 3 Ohio State last weekend at ITA Kickoff Weekend. Despite losing the doubles point, Virginia rebounded with convincing straight set victories in all six doubles matches to beat the Monarchs (0-3, 0-0 C-USA).
Old Dominion took an early lead over the Cavaliers by winning the doubles point, making it the first time this season Virginia has failed to take the doubles point. The first match to finish was on the No.1 doubles court with graduate student Carl Soderlund and junior William Woodall defeating No. 25 sophomore Luca Maldoner and sophomore Nicola Vidal by a score of 6-2. Freshman Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Iñaki Montes de la Torre dropped their first doubles match of the season with a 3-6 loss to junior Tomislav Podvinski and senior Pearce Dolan.
The Monarchs clinched the doubles point when the pairing of junior Ryan Goetz and freshman Chris Rodesch dropped their doubles match on the No. 2 doubles court with a 5-7 loss to freshman Younes Lalami and junior Jannik Giesse. The pairing of Goetz and Rodesch — named the ACC Doubles Team of the Week on Jan. 26 — was up 5-4 before Lalami and Giesse won back-to-back deuce points to secure the 7-5 win and the doubles point for Old Dominion.
The Cavaliers found greater success in the singles matches, winning all six matches in straight sets. The match between Goetz and Maldoner on the No. 1 singles court was the first to finish with Goetz winning 6-2 in the first set and 6-1 in the second set. Goetz’s dominant win brought the overall match score to 1-1.
“When we put Ryan Goetz in we think he can beat anyone.” Coach Andres Pedroso said. “He’s going to fight ‘til the end ... [I have] a lot of confidence in Ryan Goetz.”
Montes also had a strong performance with a 6-0 and 6-4 win against Podovinski on the No. 2 singles court. Senior Gianni Ross also picked up a win, beating Giesse in straight sets to give Virginia a 3-1 advantage over Old Dominion.
No. 106 von der Schulenburg clinched the victory for the Cavaliers, defeating Lalami 6-2, 6-3 on the No. 3 singles court. Von der Schulenburg is now 4-0 in singles matches on the season and was named ACC Men’s Tennis Singles Player of the Week after his performances at ITA Kickoff Weekend.
The remainder of the singles matches were played out with Rodesch earning a win over sophomore Oliver Tobisch in straight sets. Freshman Alexander Kiefer made his collegiate debut for Virginia, playing on the No. 5 singles court and defeating Dolan 7-5 in the first set and 6-3 in the second set. Four freshmen played for the Cavaliers in the singles matches, all of them earning a respective win. Virginia finished the match with a score of 6-1 over Old Dominion.
“I really liked the response after doubles,” Coach Andres Pedroso said. “It’s not going to be the first time we lose the doubles point this year. So I thought the guys responded really well to that.”
The Cavaliers’ next match is against No. 16 Wake Forest Saturday, Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. Virginia will face the Demon Deacons indoors at the Boar’s Head Sports Club for a non-conference matchup between the two ACC teams.
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