Kentucky Men’s Tennis Falls to Virginia in National Championship
Playing in their first national championship, the No. 8 seed Kentucky Wildcats (26-8) fell to No. 7 seed Virginia Cavaliers (28-5) 4-0 on a breezy Sunday at the University of Illinois.
Kentucky’s Liam Draxl (court 1) and Millen Hurrion (court 3) both won first sets but Virginia took doubles and first sets on the other four courts and never looked back.
Just as they did in their previous three matches, Kentucky dropped the doubles point to fall behind 1-0, but this time it came back to bite them. Despite taking doubles in the regular-season matchup over UVA (a match UK eventually dropped 4-2), Kentucky couldn’t get anything going in dubs on Sunday.
On court 3, Virginia’s Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Giovanni Ross knocked off UK’s Draxl and Alex Leblanc 6-1, a stark contrast from the matchup in Lexington, which the UK pair won in a long tiebreak. On court 2 UVA’s Ryan Goetz and Inaki Montes defeated Gabriel Diallo and Josh Lapadat 6-3 to clinch doubles for the Cavaliers. Court 1 was unfinished.
Bar Botzer gave UVA a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over JJ Mercer at 6. Botzer, who played No 4. singles on the Wake Forest 2018 national title team, was the only player who had previously experienced an NCAA team final.
Inaki Montes put Virginia on the brink with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Diallo on court 2. Montes has been on fire lately — he defeated last year’s national champion (Florida’s Sam Riffice) on Thursday and played too well to be beaten on Sunday.
Gianni Ross clinched the match for Virginia with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Joshua Lapadat on court 5. Ross finished the year with a 20-2 record.
Draxl and Hurrion were locked in third-set battles when their matches were suspended. Hurrion went undefeated in NCAA tournament matches and Draxl picked up some impressive victories on court 1. UK’s Francois Musitelli battled back after a rough start. He was deep into a second-set tiebreaker after dropping the first set 6-0. His match was suspended as well.
A historic season in the books
Kentucky’s historic season was highlighted by a win over fellow semifinalist Tennessee and a run to the SEC finals. The ‘Cats defeated No. 9 seed Wake Forest in the super regionals to make their first NCAA quarterfinal since 2011. Then they knocked off No. 1 TCU 4-3 to make the first semifinal in school history before trouncing No. 4 Ohio State 4-1 in the semifinals on Saturday.
There is absolutely zero shame in losing to Virginia. The ‘Hoos have now won five national titles, all in the last decade. They finish the season on a 23-match win streak, including a 4-1 win over defending national champion Florida in the quarterfinals and a 5-0 win over Tennessee in the semifinals. UVA dropped only one individual match in the entire NCAA tournament.
Kentucky will look to be among the elite again next season. Hurrion and Musitelli will both graduate but the rest of the everyday singles lineup (Canada natives Draxl, Diallo, and Lapadat, along with Mercer, a Huntington, WV product) all have eligibility remaining. Kentucky will also add Alafia Ayeni, a graduate transfer from Cornell, where he finished 19-6 playing #1 singles and is ranked #44 in the country. There are reports that Kentucky may add Taha Baadi, who went 25-14 playing on courts 5 and 6 at Wake Forest. Improved doubles play will be a major point of emphasis this offseason for Kentucky.
Diallo and Draxl will play in the NCAA singles tournament, which starts Monday at the University of Illinois. Draxl will be the No. 4 seed. Watch on the TennisONE app.
Results
No. 1 Doubles: #55 Musitelli/Hurrion VS #61 Botzer/Rodesch 4-4
No. 2 Doubles: Diallo/Lapadat (UK) LOST TO Goetz/Montes 3-6
No. 3 Doubles: Draxl/Alexandre LeBlanc (UK) LOST TO Schlenburg/Ross 1-6
Order of Finish: 3, 2
No. 1 Singles #4 Liam Draxl (UK) vs #30 Chris Rodesch 6-2, 5-7
No. 2 Singles: #21 Gabriel Diallo (UK) LOST TO #39 Inaki Montes 2-6, 2-6
No. 3 Singles: #83 Millen Hurrion (UK) vs #45 J vd Schlenburg 6-2, 3-6, 2-2
No. 4 Singles: Francois Musitelli (UK) vs #96 Ryan Goetz 0-6, 6-6
No. 5 Singles: Joshua Lapadat (UK) LOST TO Gianni Ross 4-6, 4-6
No. 6 Singles: JJ Mercer UK) LOST TO Bar Botzer 1-6, 1-6Order of Finish: 6, 2, 5
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