The women's tennis team downed the Richmond Spiders with ease Saturday afternoon. The team showed persistence on a sunny but windy afternoon. The Cavaliers (8-3) used a fast start to defeat the Spiders (7-6), 6-1.
The day was started off as the team won two out of the three doubles matches to capture the doubles point. Henriette Williams teamed up with fellow junior Jennifer Tuchband to defeat the duo of Jeanette Cluskey and Patty Devlin for the Spiders by a score of 8-3. Williams and Tuchband have won four consecutive doubles matches. The Spiders took the match at number two doubles as Richmond's Vanessa Bagnato and Lindsay Cox took out Virginia's twin sisters, freshmen Marta and Dora Bechliwanis. The final doubles match came down to the wire as Virginia seniors Amy O'Donnell and Christie Kim defeated Richmond's Casey Cohen and Courtney Klein with a score of 9-8 (7-5).
"Yesterday we won because we were the better team," Virginia coach Phil Rogers said. "Not only that, but we also showed up as the better team."
After the doubles matches, it was all Cavaliers as Virginia claimed five of the six singles matches. It was a day when the Cavalier women didn't necessarily out power their opponents but just stuck around longer so that their shots stayed. Most of the points turned out to be long rallies that ended on errors by the Richmond players. Williams cruised to an easy 6-1, 6-3 victory over Cluskey at No. 1 singles, and most of her teammates followed suit. The only Virginia singles loss came when Bagnato narrowly defeated Tuchband in the No. 2 singles match by a score of 7-5, 5-7 (10-8).
O'Donnell improved to 12-3 in her senior season after staging an impressive comeback as she came back from a 6-3 deficit in the first set to defeat Cox, 3-6, 6-3 (10-8).
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"The thing I have really noticed about this team after three or four matches is that we are very tough," Rogers said. "We just need to play with more aggressiveness and confidence and we should have some surprising results.
The Cavaliers continue their undefeated streak at home, where they have not lost this spring. However, there have been nagging injuries and illnesses such as colds and the flu that have kept the Cavs from playing at full strength. The women are looking forward to a slew of tough matches against ACC rivals, notably a home match against North Carolina.
"I think we are all psyched up for the ACC matches, so we will be really prepared for it," Tuchband said. "I know everyone will be prepared, especially at Chapel Hill."
The weather-postponed match against in-state rival Virginia Commonwealth University has not been rescheduled. The women next play host to ACC rivals North Carolina and Duke on April 6 and 7.
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