In its penultimate regular season game, No. 8 Virginia swept No. 70 Wake Forest at home on Friday afternoon, extending its win streak to 12 straight and remaining undefeated in conference play. The Cavaliers (18-4, 11-0 ACC) earned that win on senior day, honoring three graduating seniors before trouncing the Demon Deacons (11-12, 3-8 ACC) 4-0.
Before the dual began, Virginia held a ceremony for three longtime Cavaliers. Graduate student Melodie Collard, senior Annabelle Xu and senior Meggie Navarro have each played their entire collegiate careers at Virginia, with Friday’s match against Wake Forest being their second to last regular season appearance at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.
All three of those seniors played in doubles, each on different courts, and all earned wins as Virginia quickly took the doubles point.
Navarro and freshman Katie Rolls were the first to wrap up, winning 6-2 on Court 3. It was their first time playing together since October, and they got off to a quick 3-0 start, before their Demon Deacon opponents won two straight. Looking clinical on service games, Navarro and Rolls then rattled off another three straight games to take the set.
On Court 1, No. 8 Collard and junior Vivian Yang started slowly, but picked up pace after finding some momentum. After exchanging holds up to a 2-2 score, Collard and Yang then broke free, winning four straight to secure the doubles point with a 6-2 win. Collard’s decisive net game and Yang’s hard-hit lefty forehands made all the difference, as the Cavaliers’ top pairing earned their 16th win of spring.
Opting to complete their set, No. 28-ranked Xu and sophomore Martina Genis Salas then made it three doubles wins for Virginia, riding an early break to a 6-3 win. The pairing, in their second year playing together, put away points with authority, both hitting confident groundstrokes to force their opponents off balance.
Up 1-0, the Cavaliers then got off to a quick start in singles, winning four of six first sets. It quickly became a 2-0 dual when No. 23 Xu’s opponent, junior Krystal Blanch, retired from the match with what looked to be an elbow injury. Xu had dominated the first set 6-1, forcing Blanch to play at her tempo in long rallies and looking infallible in service games, and was up 3-1 when the match was forced to wrap up prematurely.
Playing for just the sixth time this season, junior Blanca Pico Navarro filled in on Court 6 Friday, and made it a 3-0 dual with a smooth win. Pico Navarro broke her opponent on deuce in the first set to get up 5-3, before holding to take it 6-3, then quickly got to a 3-1 lead the second set, before exchanging games with her opponent, then won two straight to win it 6-2. After not playing all of fall, Pico Navarro has five wins in her six appearances — all on Court 6 — and has only lost one set in the process.
The clinching point for the Cavaliers came on Court 1, where No. 81 Yang also secured a straight-set win to ice the dual. Looking extremely confident in her forehand — blasting it cross-court to break open a rally — Yang took the first set 6-3, before getting off to a 4-0 start in the second, which she proceeded to win by another 6-3 margin.
At the time of completion, No. 110 Genis Salas had just taken the second set 6-4 on Court 5, having lost the first 6-3. On Court 4, Collard was up 5-4 in the second set, one game away from her fifth straight win. Collard, the 2024 NCAA doubles champion, has been crucial for a Cavaliers side that has gone undefeated in conference play. She has not lost since Feb. 6, and has scored seven singles points in Virginia’s ACC campaign, the second most on the team behind No. 82 Rolls.
On Court 3, Rolls, the Cavaliers’ top points scorer who has won ACC Freshman of the Week in the last three weeks, was also unable to finish her match. After falling behind 4-0 in the first set, Rolls — with signature poise and intensity — was able to win five straight games, but then was unable to take the set once it reached a tiebreak. The 7-4 tiebreak loss in the opening set was Rolls’ first dropped set since March 14 — with Friday’s unfinished match being her first of the season.
With the sweep, the Cavaliers stayed undefeated in conference play, and are the lone ACC team with an undefeated record in that time. Their final test of that rare undefeated conference schedule will come Sunday at 1 p.m., as they host No. 14 NC State for the final match of the regular season. To add to the stakes, the Wolfpack (19-6, 10-1 ACC) are currently third in the ACC, their lone loss coming last weekend at the hands of No. 22 Duke. NC State, led by No. 39 sophomore Mia Slama and the No. 2-ranked pairing of junior Gabriella Broadfoot and freshman Victoria Osuigwe, is a talented squad that will make for a high-stakes and high-quality dual to end Virginia’s regular season.
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