The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
#2 Virginia (NCAA Quarterfinals)
No. 10 Men's Tennis falls to No. 2 Virginia, 4-1 in NCAA Championships quarterfinals
05.20.2017 | Men's Tennis
Christian Sigsgaard, Harrison Scott and Yuya Ito await NCAA singles play beginning May 24.
ATHENS, Ga. – Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard notched another straight-sets win over a top-100 opponent, but No. 10 Texas (22-9) fell to two-time defending NCAA champion No. 2 Virginia, 4-1 Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. Virginia (32-1) advances to Monday's semifinals where it will meet either TCU or Ohio State.
Texas went the distance with Virginia in doubles play, but the Cavaliers won at the third and second positions to earn the doubles point and a 1-0 lead. UVA's Collin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone opened with two service breaks and a 3-0 lead against Texas freshman Yuya Ito and sophomore Harrison Scott at third doubles on their way to a 6-2 win.
At first doubles, UT senior George Goldhoff and sophomore Leonardo Telles broke UVA's 17th-ranked tandem of Luca Corinteli and Carl Soderlund for a 1-0 lead and once more for 4-1. A big Goldhoff serve yielded an errant UVA return on match point and gave the Horns a 6-2 win.
Trailing 5-3 at second doubles with Sigsgaard, UT sophomore Colin Markes saved two match points on his serve and kept the Horns in the match, 5-4. However, Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alexander Ritschard served out the next game at-love to finish off a 6-4 win and the doubles point for UVA.
Virginia extended its lead to 2-0 behind Altamirano's 6-1, 6-0 win over Goldhoff at fourth singles. The Cavaliers assumed a 3-0 cushion with Soderlund's 6-2, 6-1 victory over Ito at third singles.
At first singles, UT's Sigsgaard and UVA's Ritschard held serve through the first 10 games of the opening set before Sigsgaard finally broke Ritschard for a 6-5 lead. UT's Big 12 Freshman of the Year from Denmark held serve in the following game to close out the first set, 7-5.
Sigsgaard broke Ritschard for a 4-3 second-set lead and yielded nothing further in the second set, as he finished off the win, 6-3 to pull the Horns with 3-1. However, Virginia soon put the finishes touches on its quarterfinal victory.
Virginia's Aragone took the first set off of UT's Telles, 6-2 at fifth singles. Telles assumed a 4-1 second-set lead, but Aragone held serve, broke Telles' serve and held serve once more for four-all. Both sides held serve in the next four games as the set progressed to a tiebreaker. With the tiebreaker knotted at three points apiece, Aragone won the ensuing four points to close out the tiebreaker and the match victory for the Cavaliers. The remaining matches were suspended.
Texas' Sigsgaard, Scott and Ito have earned invitations to compete in the NCAA Championships' 64-player singles draw beginning Wednesday, May 24. The draw will be released on May 23.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
I'm proud of the team. Obviously, we had a real battle to get out of the second round against Tulane and we played a really good match against Baylor. I didn't think we played a bad match today, but we knew that we needed to make every match as competitive as we could. Virginia played really well in a couple of spots. We were fighting and hanging in there, but Virginia is awfully good. I have to give Virginia credit because they were just too good today.
NCAA Championships – Quarterfinals
No. 2 Virginia 4, No. 10 Texas 1
Doubles – Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
1 No. 76 George Goldhoff/Leonardo Telles (UT) def. No. 17 Luca Corinteli/Carl Soderlund (UVA), 6-2
2 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski/Alexander Ritschard (UV) def. Colin Markes/Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-4
3 Collin Altamirano/J.C. Aragone (UVA) def. Yuya Ito/Harrison Scott (UT), 6-2
Singles – Order of Finish: 4, 3, 1, 5
1 No. 25 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. No. 91 Alexander Ritschard (UVA), 7-5, 6-3
2 No. 36 Harrison Scott (UT) vs. No. 14 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVA), 7-5, 3-6, 0-3, susp.
3 Carl Soderlund (UVA) def. No. 55 Yuya Ito (UT), 6-2, 6-1
4 No. 40 Collin Altamirano (UVA) def. George Goldhoff (UT), 6-1, 6-0
5 No. 109 J.C. Aragone (UVA) def. Leonardo Telles (UT), 6-2, 7-6 (3)
6 No. 102 Henrik Wiersholm (UVA) vs. Rodrigo Banzer (UT), 7-6 (6), 2-3, susp.
Players Mentioned
