For the third consecutive year, Virginia’s run at the ACC Championship ended in the final. The No. 4 Cavaliers (22-4, 12-1 ACC) fell 4-2 to No. 7 Wake Forest Sunday morning at the Cary Tennis Park, with the top-seeded Demon Deacons (30-3, 12-1 ACC) once again proving to be the one ACC opponent Virginia could not find an answer for this season.
The result was a familiar one. Wake Forest had handed Virginia its only ACC loss of the regular season March 22 in Winston-Salem, also by a score of 4-2. And just as they had that afternoon, the Demon Deacons won the doubles point and never fully relinquished control.
The history between these two programs has swung dramatically in recent years. Last spring, Virginia delivered one of the defining moments of the college tennis season in this very tournament, handing Wake Forest its only loss of the year and ending a 34-match unbeaten streak in the ACC semifinals. Sunday was Wake Forest’s answer, a dominant performance that left little room for Virginia to work with.
In doubles, Virginia once again did not deploy its regular season pairings for the match. The pairings of junior Dylan Dietrich and sophomore Stiles Brockett, senior Mans Dahlberg and sophomore Jangjun Kim and freshman Andres Santamarta Roig and sophomore Keegan Rice, were not used on Sunday, with Pedroso instead opting for Dahlberg with Kim on Court 1, Dietrich alongside Santamarta Roig on Court 2 and Rice and Brockett on Court 3.
Against a Wake Forest lineup that had not lost a doubles point all season, the reshuffled combinations were unable to generate the same cohesion that Virginia’s more familiar pairings had shown, and the Demon Deacons took control swiftly.
On Court 1, the No. 2-ranked pairing of freshman Andrew Delgado and senior DK Suresh Ekambaram were clinical against the No. 45-ranked combination of Dahlberg and Kim, winning 6-2 in 23 minutes. The stats told a brutal story, with Delgado and Ekambaram winning 89 percent of their serve points and converting two of their three break point opportunities, while Dahlberg and Kim won just 48 percent of their own serve points and failed to convert either of their break chances.
On Court 2, freshman Mees Rottgering and sophomore Kacper Szymkowiak took down Dietrich and Santamarta Roig 6-4 in a close match. Dietrich and Santamarta Roig actually won 53 percent of total points, but could not convert when it mattered most, winning just two of their five break point opportunities while Wake Forest took three of their four. Rottgering and Szymkowiak held serve to open the set and built their lead from there, with Virginia unable to break when they had chances and Wake Forest converting at critical moments — leading to the Demon Deacons clinching the doubles point.
On Court 3, Rice and Brockett were competitive against freshman Aryan Shah and junior Luca Pow at the time, trailing 5-4 when the doubles point was clinched. Rice and Brockett had fought hard to stay in the set, leading 40-30 in the ninth game, ready to level the playing field 5-5.
With the doubles point lost, Virginia’s singles response began promisingly, but Wake Forest’s depth ultimately proved the difference.
Court 3 went to Wake Forest first and quickly. No. 29 Pow defeated No. 48 Santamarta Roig 6-1, 6-0 in the most lopsided result of the day, with Pow dictating from the baseline with heavy topspin and giving Santamarta Roig almost nothing to work with. Santamarta Roig stayed in nearly every game but could never quite push one to deuce, as Pow raised denied the Spanish freshman any foothold. The swift victory extended Wake Forest’s lead to 2-0 and put immediate pressure on the rest of the Virginia lineup.
No. 1 Dietrich responded on Court 1, delivering Virginia’s first point with a commanding 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 30 Suresh Ekambaram, handing Wake Forest its first lost point of the entire ACC Championship. Dietrich landed his serve deep and precise while his inside out forehand consistently pulled Suresh Ekambaram wide to open up the court. Suresh Ekambaram struggled to generate anything on his second serve as Dietrich attacked it relentlessly, winning 68 percent of second serve return points across the match and improving his record to 19-1 on the season — including 12 straight wins in completed matches.
Dahlberg then tied the match 2-2 on Court 6, defeating sophomore Joaquin Guilleme 6-2, 6-4 in what was his final ACC Championship singles match as a Cavalier. In the regular season meeting between the two, it had been Guilleme who had gotten the better of Dahlberg, but on Sunday, Dahlberg flipped the result entirely. He was sharp from the opening game, pushing Guilleme wide with his slice backhand and stepping in to finish with a clean forehand. He dominated the first set 6-2 and carried that level into the second, breaking from the first game, to add to the team score.
No. 15 Rice’s Court 2 battle against No. 60 Rottgering — seventh in the college UTR rankings to Rice’s 20th — was one of the more competitive matches of the afternoon, ultimately going to the Wake Forest freshman. The first set was level through the opening games before Rottgering broke at 2-3 to take the critical advantage, and Rice could not find the break back he needed to level, leading Rottgering to close out the set 6-4.
The second set was even tighter, with the two players exchanging breaks twice, neither able to hold onto an advantage for long, with long baseline rallies and high quality shot making from both sides. Rice pushed the set all the way to a tiebreak, but Rottgering was composed when it mattered most, winning it 7-4 to take the match against one of the Cavaliers’ most reliable players.
On Court 5, Shah defeated Brockett 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the match that ultimately ended Virginia’s tournament run. The first set was a difficult one for Brockett, with Shah aggressive and precise from the baseline to take it 6-2, but Brockett came out with a different energy in the second, finding his rhythm, moving swiftly on the baseline and hitting more consistent, strong shots to close it out 6-4 and force a deciding third. That last set, however, told a different story. Brockett was unable to replicate the intensity he had shown to claw back into the match, as Shah got up multiple breaks early and closed it out 6-2 to clinch Wake Forest the ACC title.
On Court 4, Kim had dropped a competitive first set 6-4 to sophomore Charlie Robertson, but had adjusted in the second, getting more aggressive on return games and taking more time away from his opponent, taking it 6-4. The third set was underway with Robertson leading 4-1 when the match was halted.
“Congrats to Wake Forest,” Coach Andres Pedroso said afterward. “They deserved it. They were just a little better. That was the difference. And we expected it to be a tough match, a great match, and it was.”
The loss marked Virginia’s third consecutive final appearance without a title and dropped the program’s all-time ACC Championship final record to 13-7. The Demon Deacons, who won both regular season and tournament meetings against Virginia this season by the same 4-2 score, proved once again that they are the standard the Cavaliers are chasing.
The Cavaliers will now turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament. A selection show for seeding and matchups is set for April 27, with first-round play beginning May 1.
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