Cavaliers Now

Virginia Men’s Tennis Beats North Carolina 4-3 to Win 14th ACC Championship

The Cavaliers won a thrilling match against the Tar Heels in the ACC Final on Sunday

Matt Newton

It took a dramatic, heart-stopping finish and some clutch play in a tiebreaker by Inaki Montes, but the Cavaliers successfully defended their title. Virginia outlasted North Carolina in a thrilling 4-3 victory on Sunday to clinch a second-straight ACC Men’s Tennis Championship and UVA’s 14th ACC title in program history. 

North Carolina, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, started the match strong in doubles play. Virginia’s Chris Rodesch and Bar Botzer defeated Casey Kania and Logan Zapp 6-2 to give UVA the lead, but UNC won the other two doubles matches. The No. 8-ranked doubles team of Brian Cernoch and Mac Kiger took down Inaki Montes and Ryan Goetz 7-5 and then the Tar Heels clinched the point with a 7-6 win by Benjamin Sigouin and Peter Murphy over UVA’s Gianni Ross and Alexander Kiefer. 

The Cavaliers recovered and fared much better at the start of singles play. Virginia quickly tied the match at 1-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 win by Gianni Ross against UNC’s Peter Murphy. 

On court 3, Jeffrey von der Schulenburg lost his first set to Mac Kiger, but rallied to win 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Ryan Goetz shook a slow start against Logan Zapp and also came from behind for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory to put Virginia ahead 3-1. 

The Tar Heels refused to go down easily and won hard-fought three-set matches on courts 5 and 1. UNC’s Anuj Watane defeated Bar Botzer 6-0, 2-6, 6-3. On court 1, No. 33 Brian Cernoch beat No. 23 Chris Rodesch 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. 

North Carolina seized momentum with the pair of singles wins and tied the match at 3-3, leaving it up to court 2 to decide the championship. 

Virginia’s Inaki Montes took the opening set 6-4, but UNC’s Benjamin Sigouin won the second set 6-2 to force a deciding third set. The final set of the match was a back-and-forth affair and, naturally, went to a 6-6 tiebreaker. Montes came up clutch in the tiebreaker and won 7-3 to secure the victory and the 2022 ACC Men’s Championship for Virginia. 

Ryan Goetz was named the ACC Tournament MVP. 

The Cavaliers will now await their draw to the NCAA Tournament which begins on May 6th. 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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