After falling 4-1 to No. 1 Georgia Friday, No. 15 Virginia played a pair of consolation matches Saturday and Sunday, losing one and winning the other in its last duals before conference play. After first suffering a 4-2 loss at the hands of No. 14 Tennessee Saturday, the Cavaliers (7-4, 0-0 ACC) bounced back with a clean 4-1 win over the hosting Northwestern.
Facing the Lady Volunteers (4-1, 0-0 SEC) in a morning dual, Virginia fielded the same doubles lineup that it had in its last two matches. Sophomore Isabelle Lacy and freshman Katie Rolls got off to a quick start, capitalizing well off their opponents’ mistakes for a 6-0 win on Court 3.
Not long after, the Cavaliers’ top pairing — No. 4 graduate student Melodie Collard and junior Vivian Yang — logged a 6-1 win of their own. Proving dominant off of their first serves, Collard and Yang broke their Tennessee opponents in the last game to put Virginia up 1-0 heading into singles.
The Lady Volunteers got off to a strong start in singles, winning the first set on five of six courts. On Court 1, Tennessee senior Vanesa Suarez evened the dual’s score at 1-1, defeating No. 34 Yang 6-3, 6-2. Yang struggled to profit off of Suarez’s second serve, failing to convert on several break points that would have kept the sets closer.
Having been the first to finish their first set, and the only Cavalier to win one, No. 108 Rolls exploited weak second serves and converted on important break points for a 6-3, 6-3 win on Court 6. Again, the Lady Volunteers were able to even the score, as sophomore Francesca Mattioli profited off of a bad service day from No. 75 sophomore Martina Genis Salas for a 7-6 (3), 6-1 win on Court 4.
Tennessee made it a 3-2 match on Court 3, as No. 87 senior Catherine Aulia closed out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over No. 69 Lacy. Lacy put herself in a handful of good positions, but failed to convert up 40-30 in two important second-set return games, games that could have won her the match had she broken Aulia’s serve.
Up 3-2, the winning point for the Lady Volunteers was scored on Court 2 in another three-set battle between ranked players. No. 26 Xu played some great attacking tennis, serving well on the day and putting No. 32 senior Leyla Britez Risso on her back foot. One game, however, proved to be the difference, as Britez Risso broke Xu’s serve up 5-4 in the third set, closing a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 win and ending the dual at 4-2. At the time of completion, Collard was up a break in the third set, having lost the first but won a tiebreak in the third.
In Sunday evening’s dual against the Wildcats (5-4, 0-0 Big Ten), the Cavaliers again took the doubles point with two decisive wins. Collard and Yang won a clean 6-0 on Court 1, before No. 21 Xu and Genis Salas followed suit with a 6-1 win on Court 2.
Singles got off to a better start for Virginia, with Cavaliers winning four of six first sets as opposed to the prior morning’s one. Rolls extended the lead to 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-0 win on Court 6 before Collard completed a 6-3, 6-3 win on Court 5 to make it 3-0.
Yang, now winless through her last five singles outings, lost her match on Court 1 to No. 39 freshman Margot Phanthala — getting broken early in the second set then again later en route to a 6-2, 6-3 loss. With the dual now at 3-1, Virginia was a game away on Courts 2 and 4, as Xu and Lacy both hunted a break to end the match.
Punctuating a 6-3, 6-2 win with a quick break on Court 2, Xu ended the match at 4-1 for the Cavaliers minutes later. The win, though against a lesser opponent in an unranked Northwestern side, ended a three-match losing skid that had seen Virginia outscored a combined 12-3 by a trio ranked opponents.
The Cavaliers will not play again for over a week, opening conference play in Blacksburg against rival Virginia Tech Feb. 18. Virginia women’s tennis is 44-5 all-time against the Hokies (2-1, 0-0 ACC), a side that does not have a single ranked singles player or doubles pairing at this time.
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