In a competitive match lasting just under three hours, No. 15 Virginia was eliminated from the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, losing 4-1 to No. 1 Georgia in the first round at the Combe Tennis Center. The Bulldogs (2-1, 0-0 SEC) took the doubles point, giving them a strong advantage in singles and forcing the Cavaliers (6-3, 0-0 ACC) into a handful of three-set singles matches.
Georgia got on the board first in doubles, as its pairing of freshman Emma Dong and sophomore Anastasiia Gureva logged a 6-1 win on Line 3, quickly overwhelming Virginia’s pairing of sophomore Isabelle Lacy and freshman Katie Rolls. The Cavaliers quickly evened the doubles point on Line 2, as the No. 21-ranked duo of senior Annabelle Xu and sophomore Martina Genis Salas scored a 6-3 win of their own.
With doubles at one apiece, Line 1 stayed close until late. The No. 4-ranked pairing fifth-year Melodie Collard and junior Vivian Yang faced the Bulldogs’ top pairing and kept the game at a gridlock, but lost on deuce while down 5-4 to drop the match 6-4 and giving Georgia the doubles point.
The two teams started even in singles — with Virginia taking the first set on the three top courts and the Bulldogs taking the first on the bottom three. Georgia made the match a 2-0 affair on Court 6, as Dong made short work of No. 108 Rolls for a 6-3, 6-3 win. Rolls had some strong moments throughout the match, moving well and keeping her serves low, but failed to find the breaks to keep each set in reach.
No. 75 Genis Salas faced a similar result on Court 4. Facing the tall and powerful-serving No. 33 Gureva, Genis Salas struggled to find her footing in the first set, losing it 6-3. She kept the second much closer, holding Gureva close and reaching a tiebreak. Like in the first set, however, Gureva had a lot more success on her serve than Genis Salas, and took the tiebreak 7-2, making it a 3-0 lead for the Bulldogs.
Virginia got on the board not long afterwards, as No. 69 Lacy notched a three-set win on Court 3 over No. 23 freshman Deniz Dilek. Lacy built a big lead early in the first set, winning it 6-3, but lost the second by the same score. Finding an early break, Lacy cruised to a 6-1 win in the third set — making it a 3-1 dual and extending her undefeated streak to 7-0 on the season.
With Courts 1 and 2 both in competitive matches, the dual was completed on Court 5. No. 42 senior Sofia Rojas had taken the first set against Collard 6-2, winning it with an impressive defensive performance that saw her run the full length of the court diagonally to barely reach a drop shot and put it over. Collard fired back with a quick 6-2 win in the second, winning five games in a row to force a third set. Rojas then won a break at 4-3 in the third set, then held her serve to win it 6-3 score and wrap up the dual.
At the time of completion, No. 34 Yang was trailing 6-5 in the second set, having taken the first 6-4. No. 26 Xu had also won the first set — acing No. 4 junior Aysegul Mert to take it 6-4 — but had dropped the second 6-3, leaving the match unfinished as it entered a third set.
Losing the doubles point ultimately sealed the Cavaliers’ fate against Georgia — especially once singles got underway and each squad took three first sets. The disadvantage forced Virginia to have to find a three-set win in one of the lower courts, ultimately failing to do so on all three. The top half of the singles order, however, looked quite strong, as Yang, Xu and Lacy all won first sets against tough matchups, with Lacy scoring the Cavaliers’ lone point on the day and extending her incredibly strong start to the fall.
Despite their elimination from the mid-season tournament, Virginia will still play a consolation match against No. 14 Tennessee tomorrow at 10 a.m., its first of two as the ITA Team Indoor Championships guarantee that all 16 teams will play at least three matches. The Lady Volunteers (2-1, 0-0 SEC) were just swept by Louisiana State in their first-round match and boast two ranked singles players and three ranked doubles pairings.
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