The Virginia women’s tennis team has experienced mixed results at the weeklong All-American ITA Tennis Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Freshman Julia Elbaba advanced to the main draw singles tournament, but every other Cavalier competing in either singles or doubles has been eliminated.
Competing in her first collegiate tournament, Elbaba has defeated an impressive slew of adversaries on her way to a spot in the main draw field of 32 athletes. After sweeping her way through three matches in the pre-qualifying round, the Oyster Bay, N.Y. native upset No. 41 Katie Le of Santa Clara 6-4, 6-0. She then disposed of Yale’s Blair Seideman 6-4, 6-2 and Florida State’s Francesca Segarelli 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to earn her spot in the main draw. She begins play in the main draw Thursday.
Virginia junior Li Xi and seniors Erin Vierra and Maria Fuccillo all fell in qualifying singles. Xi floundered in a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Florida’s Danielle Collins, Fuccillo lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 to Whitney Ritchie of Oklahoma, and Vierra dropped a 6-3, 6-1 decision to Princeton’s Lindsay Graff.
In doubles, the duos of Elbaba and Fuccillo and Xi and freshman Stephanie Nauta entered Wednesday each needing two victories to advance past the qualifying round. Elbaba and Fuccillo lost their first Wednesday tilt 8-5 to Petra Niedermayerova and Karla Bonacic, whereas Xi and Nauta claimed theirs — an 8-3 victory against Mary Clayton and Marianne Jodoin of Duke — before bowing out of the tournament with an 8-6 loss to Southern California’s tandem of Gabriella DeSimone and Zoë Scandalis.
The main tennis season commences at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships next February.
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