With Virginia's fate resting on her racket, junior Lindsey Hardenbergh faced Baylor's third consecutive match point. The No. 23 Cavaliers and No. 3 Bears were tied 3-3 in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament, and Hardenbergh trailed 6-5 in the deciding third-set tiebreaker.
She and junior Diana Nakic traded deep groundstrokes until Nakic called Hardenbergh's down-the-line shot out. Baylor (5-1) erupted into victorious cheers, while Virginia fans' hearts began to sink.
But then the roles reversed. The chair umpire overruled Nakic's call for the match's fourth time, forcing Baylor to forfeit the game as a penalty. That forfeited game gave Hardenbergh the match and Virginia (8-1) arguably its biggest win in school history.
"It is the best win officially on paper for U.Va. women's tennis," coach Mark Guilbeau said. "We've beaten the No. 6 and 10 teams, Baylor was No. 3, and there's something to be said for doing it first round National Team Indoors."
Despite the last-minute heroics, Hardenbergh and Virginia seemed to have secured the match hours earlier. Sophomore Maria Fuccillo and freshman Rashmi Teltumbde opened the day with a win at No. 3 doubles, while junior Emily Fraser and sophomore Hana Tomljanovic took the No. 1 position to clinch the doubles point. After Tomljanovic and freshman Caryssa Peretz won their respective singles matches, Virginia owned a 3-0 advantage. Meanwhile, Hardenbergh led her match 6-3, 5-1, and needed just one more game to claim a victory for Virginia.
"To be honest, I wanted to be the one to hurry up and seal [the win]," Hardenbergh said. "And then I looked, and I was like [Fuccillo's] going to finish it first, and I think I started to force shots. You have to really block all that out. I guess I'll learn from that the hard way."
In her rush, Hardenbergh began to let the match slip away. Nakic rallied to take the next six games and won the second set 7-5. Hardenbergh then dropped five more games in the third, allowing Nakic to serve for the match up 5-2.
"I was kind of ready to give up," Hardenbergh admitted. "I guess I was just relying on my teammates, I was like, 'Someone else can pull it out.' Then it hit me; I'm losing, Emily and Maria are losing. This is our moment. This is our time."
With that realization, Hardenbergh suddenly seemed invincible. She rattled off five straight games of her own, and grabbed three match points. The junior failed to convert any of the opportunities for assured victory, however, and Nakic forced a tiebreak.
"It would have been nice to have finished it out, because I wasn't able to do it when I had my chance, but neither was she," Hardenbergh said. "We just kind of went back-and-forth. We almost played better match points down than we were on our own match points."
Hardenbergh actually won on Nakic's match point, stealing a victory for the ages in bizarre fashion.
"This is my best tennis memory ever," Hardenbergh said. "It's because of the team, and even though it came down to my match, it was really the team that put me in that position to win."
Guilbeau, who has been coaching tennis for 20 years, also considers this match his best tennis memory.
"I've been fortunate to win a national championship as an assistant coach and actually two national indoor championships," Guilbeau said. "As a head coach, I was able to take another university to the finals of this National Indoors. But this is as good or better than any of those."
Virginia lost its next match against No. 6 Duke 4-2 Saturday, but then swept No. 20 Northwestern 4-0 in a consolation match Sunday. No. 8 Stanford went on to win the tournament, defeating No. 3 Florida, 4-3.
This weekend marked the first time that the Cavaliers had hosted the tournament in program history and the team's first appearance in the event since its 1993-94 season. The Cavaliers entered the weekend with a 6-0 record but were the lowest-ranked team in the field. Guilbeau believes the Cavaliers' showing will open some eyes.
"I think people know we're getting there and we're working hard," he said. "Now these kids have just shown themselves to be very worthy of some respect"
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