No. 9 Virginia women’s tennis hosted in-state rival Virginia Tech (10-11, 1-10 ACC) Thursday afternoon at Boar’s Head Resort for their last home match of the regular season. The Cavaliers hoped to continue their three-game winning streak, and they certainly delivered with a 5-2 victory over the Hokies (16-4, 9-2 ACC) that extended the length to four.
Each of the last three matches the Cavaliers have won heading into Thursday have begun by earning the elusive doubles point. That trend certainly continued against Virginia Tech. Graduate student Julia Adams and sophomore Melodie Collard wasted no time in defeating Virginia Tech junior Katie Andreini and sophomore Dariya Radulova, as they finished first with a 6-0 win under their belts. Not far behind them were sophomore Elaine Chervinsky and senior Natasha Subhash, who also dominated in a 6-0 victory.
The Cavaliers only surrendered two games in the entirety of doubles play, as junior Sara Ziodato and freshman Annabelle Xu pulled out a 6-2 victory. This was Xu’s first match back from injury which left her on the sidelines since February.
Virginia certainly capitalized on the momentum stemming from doubles dominance heading into singles play. Adams — the Cavaliers’ highest ranked individual at No. 57 — sped to a 6-2, 6-2 victory. Over on court five, Ziodato won by the same score, also in dominating fashion.
Now down 3-0, the desperate Hokies rallied for two wins. The first came from Andreini, defeating Collard 2-6, 4-6 on court six, but the second was a bit more of a battle. No. 60 Subhash — who is reigning ACC Women’s Tennis Co-Player of the Week — dropped her first set to No. 67 freshman Ozlem Uslu 1-6. But Subhash did not accept defeat. She fought back in the second set, battling all the way to a tiebreaker. Unfortunately, she was edged out 4-7 in the deciding point, and lost the second set 7-6.
The final two singles matches went in favor of the Cavaliers. Junior Hibah Shaikh clinched the match win with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Radulova. The last to finish was Chervinsky, as her match against sophomore Semra Aksu proved to be a long-haul. Chervinsky dropped the first set 2-6, but rallied for a convincing 6-1 second set. The momentum remained in her favor, as she closed out the match with a 6-4 third set victory.
This 5-2 victory for the Cavaliers adds a point to the yearly Commonwealth Clash total score, in which the Cavaliers now lead 8-7. This win could not have come on a better day, as it was also Senior Day. Adams was the sole honoree, presented with flowers and a plaque in a pre-game ceremony.
This closed out the Cavaliers’ home schedule and they now look forward to two final regular season matches on the road against No. 7 NC State and No. 24 Wake Forest. But first, they have a bye this weekend to recover and prepare for the final stretch heading into postseason play. Keep an eye out for the doubles pairing of Adams and Collard, as they have won 11 out of 12 of their most recent matches.
Virginia next plays Friday against NC State. The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., and games can be streamed on virginiasports.com.
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