The Virginia women’s tennis team concluded its fall season this weekend with play at the UNC Team Invitational and the ITA National Indoors. Sophomores Julia Elbaba and Danielle Collins along with freshman Rachel Pierson competed at the National Indoors, while seniors Caryssa Peretz and Li Xi, sophomores Stephanie Nauta and Maci Epstein, and freshman Marie Faure represented the Cavaliers in Chapel Hill.
Elbaba, who finished the spring season as the No. 1 freshman in the nation, entered the National Indoors as the ninth-ranked player in the country. The talented Virginia sophomore swept fellow sophomore No. 10 Breaunna Addison from Texas 7-5, 6-3 in the Round of 16, but fell in the quarterfinals to the tournament’s top-ranked player, Southern California junior Sabrina Santamaria by a score of 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3. Pierson and Collins both fell in their Round of 16 matches.
Elbaba also found success in doubles play, where she and Pierson made it to the quarterfinals of the competition before falling to Georgia Tech’s sophomore duo of Megan Kurey and Kendal Woodard, who rank 26th nationally in doubles competition.
The Cavaliers got off to a stronger start at the UNC Invitational, where they won seven of their first nine matches. Virginia dropped just one singles and one doubles match in the first day of the tournament, with the tandem of Xi and Faure going 2-0 in doubles and Nauta picking up where she left off last year with a dominating 6-4, 6-2 victory against South Carolina freshman Caroline Daily.
In the final day, however, the Cavaliers posted just one win, with Faure outlasting Virginia Commonwealth sophomore Salome Kvitashvili 6-4, 1-6, 1-0(4). Xi and Epstein dropped their matches to players that both rank in the top 100 nationally.
The Cavaliers will be back in action Jan. 15, when they face off against William & Mary in Williamsburg.
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