In its final regular season match of the season, No. 8 Virginia clinched its first ever outright ACC regular season title with a thrilling win over No. 14 NC State Sunday afternoon. It was a marathon of a dual — with a razor-thin doubles point and several extremely close singles matches — but after three hours and 40 minutes, the Cavaliers (19-4, 12-0 ACC) extended their win streak to 13 straight, defeating the Wolfpack (19-7, 10-2 ACC) 4-2.
Both teams got off to a strong start in doubles, each winning on one court to force a decider. On Court 1, Virginia’s top pairing of No. 8 graduate student Melodie Collard and junior Vivian Yang opened the dual with a 6-4 win over No. 2 junior Gabriella Broadfoot and freshman Victoria Osuigwe. NC State responded on Court 3, where sophomore Mia Slama and freshman Lavinia Tanasie secured a narrow 7-5 victory against sophomore Isabelle Lacy and freshman Katie Rolls.
That forced the doubles point — which would prove to be extremely consequential — to be decided on Court 2, in a tiebreak. No. 28 senior Annabelle Xu and sophomore Martina Genis Salas had worked back to tie the set at 6-6 against No. 70 senior Anna Zyryanova and junior Jasmine Conway, placing the entire first point of the dual onto a first-to-seven tiebreak.
Xu and Genis Salas — playing their 70th match as partners — were able to pull through. With a 7-4 win in the tiebreak, they were able to send the Cavaliers into singles up 1-0, three wins away from completing the best regular season in program history.
“That doubles point came down to the last few points,” Coach Sara O’Leary said. “I am just really proud of Annabelle, being a senior. I think she played with a lot of courage there at the end of that doubles point, and just wasn't going to be denied.”
Singles, like doubles, would prove to be extremely competitive from the start, with each team taking three of six first sets.
The Wolfpack struck first in singles, as No. 65 Tanasie earned a comfortable win over No. 111 Lacy on Court 4. Lacy got up a break early in the first set, but Tanasie won six straight to take it, before winning the first four games of the second set to put herself in position to clinch a 6-2, 6-3 victory.
That 1-1 stalemate would not last long, as minutes later Collard responded on Court 6 with the 96th singles win of her career, defeating Conway 6-3, 6-4. Collard had been the first to finish her first set, but Conway had taken a 4-2 lead to start the second, which forced Collard to win four straight games to win the match, executing clinically on high-stakes game points to give Virginia a 2-1 lead.
After Courts 4 and 6 had wrapped up, it would take some time before another point was scored. Three of the remaining four matches went to third sets, while No. 81 Yang and No. 39 Slama were playing the most competitive match of the day — the first set having gone to a tiebreak and the second poised to do the same.
No. 110 Genis Salas was the one to score the Cavaliers’ third point. After dropping the first set to Osuigwe, Genis Salas responded well with a clean win in the second, before fighting for an advantage in the third set to clinch a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win on Court 5. With impressive defense and powerful forehands, Genis Salas forced more and more mistakes from Osuigwe as the match progressed, growing in confidence and ultimately running away with the match.
Again, however, NC State responded. No. 46 Broadfoot, facing No. 82 Rolls on Court 3, handed the Cavaliers’ star first-year her first loss in exactly one month, coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the first to take it 6-4, then winning the third set by the same score after Rolls bounced back in the second.
That left the top two courts as the only unfinished ones — the Wolfpack needing to win both and Virginia needing just one.
In the end, it was the Cavaliers’ lone transfer addition, Yang, who won them the match. A late break in the first set had allowed her to even the set at 5-5, before a tiebreak was required after two holds. After falling behind 4-2, Yang worked the tiebreak back to 6-6, before an errant Slama forehand several points later gave Yang the first set with a 9-7 win.
The second set would also go to a tiebreak, but the second time around was easier for Yang. A 7-4 victory iced the dual for Virginia, a victorious Yang raising both arms in triumph before celebrating with her team.
At the time of completion, No. 23 Xu was tied at 4-4 in the third set on Court 2. Xu had come back from being down 3-0 in the first set to take it 6-4, before dropping the second 6-3.
With the win, the Cavaliers will head to Cary, N.C. as the top seed in the ACC Championships. They will open play Friday in the quarterfinals, with the finals set to take place Sunday. In all likelihood, they will play their final home games of the season in the NCAA Tournament as regional hosts, looking to cap off an incredible season with a run at national glory.
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