Cavaliers Now

Virginia Men's Tennis Takes Down No. 1 Texas in 4-3 Comeback

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletic

The Cavaliers had just suffered their first loss of the season to the No. 3-ranked team in the nation (Ohio State) on Friday. They were facing the No. 1 team in the country in their next match less than 48 hours later. The top-ranked Longhorns won the doubles point with relative ease and then won the first set in five of the six singles matches.

All of those indicators seemed to point towards a second-straight home loss for the No. 5-ranked Virginia men's tennis team.

Instead, Andres Pedroso's Cavaliers showed incredible toughness and battled back for a thrilling 4-3 comeback victory over Texas on Sunday afternoon at Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville.

The Longhorns immediately had the Hoos on their heels in doubles play, winning the top two courts 6-2 and 7-5 to take a 1-0 lead.

Jangjun Kim made short work of Sebastian Eriksson 6-3, 6-3 on court 5 to get the Cavaliers on the board at 1-1.

From there, it seemed the match was headed firmly in the direction of the Longhorns. Jonah Braswell held off Mans Dahlberg in the second set to win 6-0, 6-4 on court 4 and then James Hopper fell to Pierre-Yves Bailly 6-2, 6-4 on court 3, moving Texas within one point of clinching the match at 3-1.

Texas had plenty of opportunities to secure that last point, having won the first set on each of the other three courts still in play. But Stiles Brockett extended his match on court 6 against Lucas Brown with a 7-5 win and then, on the top court, UVA's freshman phenom Rafael Jódar saved three match points and won the second set against Timo Legout, who came into the season as the No. 3-ranked men's singles player in the country.

On court 2, Dylan Dietrich rallied after losing the first set to beat Sebastian Gorzny, who is the No. 2-ranked men's singles tennis player in the country, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Rafael Jódar sustained the momentum from the second set tiebreaker win into the third set and raced past Legout to win the match 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, a victory which evened the overall score of the match to 3-3.

That left the fate of the match to be decided on court 6, where Stiles Brockett defeated Lucas Brown 4-7, 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the match and complete the comeback victory for the Cavaliers.

The three men's tennis teams that played at Boar's Head this weekend are some of the best in the country. Not only are they each ranked in the top five right now, but Virginia defeated Texas and Ohio State in the semifinals and finals in 2023 to win back-to-back national titles.

The Cavaliers gave up their crown in 2024, losing in the quarterfinals to Wake Forest, but Texas and Ohio State both advanced to the Final Four and the Longhorns wound up losing to TCU in the National Championship.

Even after losing to Ohio State on Friday, Sunday's comeback victory over Texas shows that Virginia is very ready to compete strongly for another national title this spring.

Up next, Virginia (5-1) will head to Athens for a road match at Georgia on Friday at 6pm ET before traveling to Dallas for the ITA Team Indoor Championships the following week.

Published
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.