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AUGUST 2023 15 2022-23 IN REVIEW tennis player, to try to find an American univer- sity to attend to hone his skills. "Since the first day he told me UVA is your priority, they're like the Real Madrid of col- lege tennis," Montes said. "I trusted him. I'm extremely lucky and proud to say that I made the right decision." Due to COVID restrictions, he did not visit UVA before arriving in Charlottesville in August 2020. After committing, he FaceTimed with Pedroso and associate head coach Scott Brown almost daily as they spoke in English, trying to work on the immersive environment he was about to find himself in. He also im- mersed himself in some UVA history. "During COVID, I started watching all these highlights on the Virginia Sports YouTube chan- nel," Montes said. "I saw a clip of Thai-Son Kwiatkowski going crazy. I saw all those guys [former Cavaliers] and was like, this is amaz- ing! I mean, this is so cool. "There are so many people watching those matches. Where I'm from, usually you play a match on Sunday at 9 a.m., and there's your dad and the other guy's dad watching the match and that's all. On YouTube, UVA tennis seemed amazing." Individual competitions in the fall were canceled during Montes' first-year campaign because of COVID-19, giving him time to adjust to life at UVA and the life of a student-athlete. "I was extremely lucky to have [teammate] Alex Kiefer as my roommate because he spoke Spanish," Montes said. "He was always there helping me any time I needed transla- tions for classes and studying. He helped me a lot at the beginning." Five months after arriving in Charlottesville, Montes made his UVA tennis debut. "I remember my first-ever college match being against Liberty on January 17, 2021," Montes said. "I couldn't sleep that night. I woke up at 5 a.m., which had never happened before — so much tension. I remember I was 4-0 down in the third set. The whole team came to watch because everyone was done. "I remember coming back and winning that match. And I was like, 'Wow, this is so cool.' The reason why I won that match is because my coaches and the players were standing next to me watching my match and I was like, 'I have to win for these guys.' "That's when the team skills come in, for how special it is playing for a team. And that's when I came to understand a bit how cool this experience was going to be." Cavalier fans began to understand a bit how cool the Iñaki Montes experience was going to be in the ACC Championship that year. Montes clinched the Cavaliers' victories in both the semi- finals and the final, leading UVA to its 13th ACC title but the first with Pedroso as head coach. One year later, this time with the stands packed with fans and with even more watching the ACC Network broadcast, Montes clinched the Cavaliers' second straight conference title. Though no one knew it then, Montes and the team were just getting started. In what many consider the tipping point of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Montes came back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set against 2021 NCAA Singles champion Sam Riffice of Florida to win the match 7-5, 6-4, which enabled the No. 7-seeded Cavaliers to take down the No. 2-seeded Gators and advance to the semi- finals. Montes went on a tear in Champaign, topping No. 10 Johannus Monday of Tennessee in straight sets in the semifinals before dominat- ing another top-25 player, Gabriel Diallo of Ken- tucky, 6-2, 6-2 in the championship match. Montes' quick victory against Diallo gave him a front-row seat as a spectator to watch Gianni Ross clinch the match and earn Montes and his teammates their first national championship. "The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Gianni clinched! It must be all of the 6 a.m.'s we did with [strength and conditioning coach] Justin Russ in the fall.' Those were so tough for me mentally. I'm used to waking up late in Spain, practicing from 8 to 10 p.m. every single day. "We were waking up at 5:30 a.m. to go run- ning. I was waking up like, 'There's no chance I'm gonna make it.' All those tough moments came to my mind. If you really suffer, then you've worked for something. This is what you do that work for. When you win, you see all of the compensation." His second thought was his coach. "I remember when we won, running to- wards him and giving him a hug," Montes said. "Since I stepped on Grounds at UVA, all I wanted to do is run and fight for UVA. Be- cause of the opportunity that Andres gave me, I wanted to win something big for the school. "We won ACCs, but I got to understand since I got to UVA that a national champion- ship was the goal. And that's all I wanted for Andres and I wanted to give it to him. And so after seeing it come through, I went straight to Andres and I remember telling him, 'We did it!' I get really emotional when I think about it." This year, Montes had a different view of the clinching point, watching it from behind the service line. His ace against No. 11 Cannon Kingsley of Ohio State sealed the championship. As the chair official proclaimed 'game, set and match,' Montes flung his racquet in the air, gave out a patented yell, and performed a celebration move known as the lawnmower while waiting for his teammates to rush the court and join him. "Being on those stages in those big mo- ments before really helped me calm my nerves," Montes said. "I was just thinking to run and fight for the team. I wasn't thinking how to play. I wasn't thinking how to beat my opponent. I was thinking, as our coaches are saying all the time, in those moments, it doesn't come to tennis. "In those moments, it is about who wants to be there the most, who wants to find the most solutions to their problems, who wants to fight more, who really wants it more. It comes down to who's willing to suffer the most and I knew I was willing to suffer the most there. "All I wanted was to make all of the UVA community proud. They came out in force for the finals in Orlando. Because either win or lose, giving everything and making the most out of those experiences is what I value." His second thought, though, was again his coach. "I went up to him and I gave him a hug to throw him on the floor again," he said. The Cavaliers return the core of their lineup, including Montes, in 2023-24. Besides the obvious goal of trying for a three-peat, Montes has another goal for this coming season. "My parents are UVA's biggest fans and are always watching us," Montes said. "If it's 5 a.m., it doesn't matter. My parents are there at my house watching it on TV. But they are getting a bit sick of watching the matches in Pamplona, so I'm hoping they will come next season for our last dance and see some matches in person. "I think they will really enjoy it and the atmo- sphere that college brings and so I'm hoping they can stop watching the matches at home and have a chance of seeing them in real life." " Since I stepped on Grounds at UVA, all I wanted to do is run and fight for UVA. Because of the opportunity that Andres gave me, I wanted to win something big for the school." MONTES