By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
“The two No. 1s going head to head for all the hardware” exclaimed ESPN’s Luke Jensen from the television broadcast booth high atop Henry Feild Stadium at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex at the University of Georgia as the NCAA men’s team title lay in the balance between the University of Virginia and the University of Texas.
Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich from Zurich, Switzerland, the 21-year-old junior and the No. 1 ranked player in the college tennis (ranked No. 997 on the ATP Tour rankings) took on Sebastian Gorzny, the 22-year-old senior from Austin, Texas and the No. 3 ranked player in college tennis (ranked No. 1,422 on the ATP Tour rankings.) When the two titans of college tennis started their third and final set of their confrontation at No. 1 singles, the match was tied at 3-3, meaning the third set of this battle royale would decide the NCAA championship.
Gorzny broke serve for a 3-1 lead in the final set but Dietrich won a sudden-death deuce point in the next game to break back and then another one to hold for 3-3. Gorzny then double faulted when down 15-40 in the next game to go down the lethal service break. Dietrich then held at love, connecting on four first serves that Grozny couldn’t get back in play. After Grozny saved two match points in the next game, Deitrich then served out the match at 30 to clinch the title for the Cavaliers. WATCH Dietrich close out the match here: https://youtu.be/-RK-G07d1HY?si=_0sK7qqUOk__8fel
With their seventh NCAA team title title, Virginia moves ahead of the Georgia Bulldogs for third place for most NCAA team titles won in the “team tournament” era (since 1977). Stanford has won the most NCAA team tournament titles with 15, followed by Southern Cal with nine.
After UVA coach Brian Boland engineered the first four NCAA titles for UVA in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the last three titles have been under the stewardship of coach Andres Pedroso, the last before this year coming in 2023.
When asked where the Virginia “magic” comes from in his post-match press conference, Pedroso said, ““I think some of it is the winning tradition that we can draw from and a lot of stories that I can tell about the former players and what they’ve done to put seven stars on our back. Now, seven stars on our back, It’s hard to believe. There’s just so many stories, so many former players that I talk to them about all the time. I don’t want to say it’s brainwashing because I really believe it when I tell them, I make sure they believe that when they walk on the grounds at the University of Virginia for the first time. That we play our best tennis in May and we are the closest team. We take pride in that. We’re really tough out. I give the former players all the credit for that, for that winning tradition and all the stories that I can draw from for these guys to pump them up.”
