Deacs Ace Their Way Into the ACC Championship Finals

Last year, despite winning the ACC regular season, the ITA National Team Championship, and the NCAA national championship, there was one title the Wake Forest Men's Tennis team failed to capture - the ACC Tournament Championship.

In last year's tournament, the No. 1 seed Deacs lost to No. 5 seed Virginia in the semifinal match. The Hoos would go on to lose to No. 3 Stanford in the championship match.

This year, Wake Forest (29-3, 12-1 ACC) has an opportunity to earn that elusive title while also avenging last year's tournament loss when the No. 1 Deacs face the No. 2 Hoos in Sunday's championship match.

Wake Forest advanced to its first tournament championship match since 2019 after a couple of dominant sweeps in its quarterfinal and semifinal matches over Duke and Stanford, respectively. Here's how the Deacs made their way to Sunday's final:

Quarterfinal - No. 1 Wake Forest vs. No. 9 Duke

The match started like every other ACC match has this season - with the Deacs winning the doubles point thanks to a couple of 6-3 matches on courts one and two. This was the 19th-straight doubles win for Wake Forest and the 28th of the season. Wake has only lost four doubles points this season, none of them to an ACC opponent.

Wake Forest went into singles play and quickly won all six first sets. Wake Forest won straight-set matches on courts one, two, and six, giving the Deacs a 4-0 score to advance to Saturday's semifinal. It marked the second sweep of Duke and the fourth sweep of Big Four rivals this season.

"Really proud of the way the guys came out focused and took care of business from the start. Doubles set the tone again, and we carried that momentum into singles with a lot of discipline across the lineup. Duke is always a tough match, so to get through 4-0 and keep building toward our goals this weekend is a great step. We are looking forward to a great match against Stanford in the semifinals tomorrow morning."
Head Coach Tony Bresky

Semifinal - No. 1 Wake Forest vs. No. 4 Stanford

Wake Forest had only one conference loss this season - an intense match in Palo Alto earlier this month, with Stanford beating Wake Forest 4-3 in a decision that came down to the last court.

On Saturday morning, Wake Forest quickly took care of business to avenge that one loss, with yet another sweep in the tournament. Once again, the Deacs took the doubles point. This time, though, it was a 6-3 win on court two (Mees Rottgering/Kacper Szymkowiak) and a 6-0 bagel on court three (Luca Pow/Nico Godsick).

In singles play, Wake Forest won four of the six first sets and then was able to win straight sets on the back half of the courts - four, five, and six.

What's Next for Wake Forest Men's Tennis