Fall tennis, for many players, is pretty simply about getting time on court. After summers that some spend playing tournaments to maximize their playing time and others spend at desk jobs or napping poolside, the flexibility that comes with the fall allows players to shake off rust, hone their craft and do their best to qualify for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in November.
To kick off its fall season, Virginia hosted an invitational tournament, the Orange & Blue Classic, Friday through Sunday at the Boar’s Head Resort. Hosting players from Georgetown, VCU, Penn, Virginia Tech and Duke, the Cavaliers took to the court in front of a home crowd ahead of next week’s ITA All-American in Tulsa, Okla. — the first opportunity of the year for players to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Virginia’s sophomores took the challenge in stride, with three of them logging records of 3-0 in doubles and two going 3-0 in singles in the tournament, while showing flashes of growth from the spring.
Sophomore Keegan Rice in particular can likely take the title of MVP for the weekend, going undefeated as one of those three sophomores. He did not drop a single set over the weekend, striking the ball early at the baseline and rarely giving his opponents even a nanosecond to set their feet. Ranked No. 98 in the NCAA, Rice will start in the singles qualifying tournament at the All-American, and will be in pre-qualifying for doubles with partner and fellow sophomore Jangjun Kim.
Like Rice, Kim went undefeated on the weekend, and he will start in pre-qualifying singles at the All-American. Kim spent the weekend playing impressive defense and hitting the ball like it owed him money, a strategy that made him the team’s third-leading point scorer in the spring and a real threat off the baseline against just about anybody.
Another sophomore, Stiles Brockett, sneakily put together a stellar weekend, hitting lasers from the baseline and controlling pace extremely effectively en route to a 5-1 weekend. Going 3-0 in doubles with three different partners is possibly the weekend’s biggest achievement for the Fairfax, Va. native, who played only four doubles matches as a freshman.
Sophomore Roy Horovitz will start in pre-qualifying at the All-Americans. Getting back to the court after an extensive recovery process, Horovitz went 0-1 in doubles but 1-0 in singles, with that win being an impressive one over Georgetown graduate student Burke Pablo. Horovitz, a whopping 11 inches shorter than Pablo, kept the ball in play against his opponent’s gigantic serves, hitting every shot in the book and cruising to a 6-0, 6-4 win.
Junior Dylan Dietrich, ranked ninth in the country, is already slated for the All-American’s main draw for doubles, with longtime partner senior Måns Dahlberg, and for singles. Dietrich went 2-0 in doubles this weekend, playing once with Dahlberg and once with Brockett, and lost his one singles appearance — a hard-fought, three-set duel against Penn senior Manfredi Graziani, a hard-hitting lefty who can overpower any player he does not confound with the weird angles his shots come from.
In stapled fashion, Dahlberg went 3-0 in singles on the weekend with two wins coming after dropping the first set. So much of his game is centered around getting his forehand in play, which can sometimes take some time to kick in. Dahlberg will begin in pre-qualifying for singles alongside Kim and Horovitz and will start in the main draw for doubles with Dietrich.
Senior Douglas Yaffa, who only played two singles matches and six doubles matches in his junior campaign, put together an impressive weekend in his own right. Standing at 6-foot-5, Yaffa capitalized off of powerful serves and imposing net presence to go 2-1 in singles and 2-1 in doubles, partnering with three of the sophomores and complimenting them well.
Missing from the team this weekend, for very understandable reasons, was sophomore Rafael Jódar. The No. 2 ranked player in college tennis reached the semifinals of the Winston Salem Challenger before losing to Southern Methodist junior Trevor Svajda. Jódar will be in the main draw at the All-American.
All things considered, Virginia logged an impressive weekend that showcased growth and further potential to explore down the road. Dietrich and Dahlberg returned as a phenomenal doubles pairing, with Dahlberg showing off his patented ability to turn matches around as his confidence in his signature shot grows. Yaffa put his name in the mix as a dependable singles player and versatile doubles option on a team wanting for both. Four of the team’s five sophomores showed flashes of real progress against legitimate Division I opposition.
With a handful of Cavaliers returning to action at the All-American, which runs from Sept. 20 to 29, the future is looking bright. Coach Andres Pedroso and his staff bet on continuity and the players they already had, a decision that — at least so far — is looking to be a good one.
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