Women’s Tennis: Virginia advances to ITA Indoors quarterfinals

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 7 Virginia women’s tennis (7-0) opened play at the 37th anual ITA National Team Indoor Championships with a 4-2 victory against No. 13 Florida (6-1) at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wisc.

The Cavaliers rebounded after losing a close doubles point to pick up victories on singles courts one, four, five and six to defeat the Gators and advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m. ET quarterfinal against No. 2 North Carolina.

Sophomore Emma Navarro won the clinching victory for the Cavaliers on the top singles court.

The match was a battle from the outset. Navarro and senior Amber O’Dell won 6-1 on the top doubles court, topping the No. 6 duo of Carly Briggs and Marlee Zein, but courts two and three both were knotted at 6-6, forcing tiebreakers on both courts. Florida won the third court’s tiebreaker 7-3 while the middle court battled to an 8-8 tie. No. 27 Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee won the final two points to take it 10-8 and clinch the point for the Gators.

Senior Sofia Munera had the only short singles match of the day, winning 6-1, 6-3 to tie the match at 1-1. Sophomore Hibah Shaikh battled to a 6-4, 7-5 win on court three in the same amount of time as two of the three-set matches. Shaikh won both her first set and the second by taking deuce points at the end of both. Her victory on six gave UVA a 2-1 lead, but seconds later Florida tied it at 2-2 with a three-set victory on court three. Minutes later, sophomore Sara Ziodato put the Cavaliers back in the lead, 3-2, with a win on court five. Ziodato bounced back from being edged 6-4 in the first set to win the second two 6-1 and 6-3 against Carly Briggs to put UVA on the brink.

Both Navarro and freshman Elaine Chervinsky were simultaneously looking at picking up break points to win their matches on courts one and two. Navarro, who had dropped her first set 6-3 against McCartney Kessler and won her second 6-4 to force a third, was playing a 40-40 deuce point, winning it to break Kessler and clinch the set 6-2 and the match for the Cavaliers.

Chervinsky had dropped her first set 6-2 against Dudeney but won her second 6-4. Chervinsky was up 5-3 in the third set with Dudeney serving down 15-40 when the match was halted.

MATCH NOTES

• North Carolina, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, is the two-time defending champion of the event
• The Cavaliers are looking for their first ITA National Team Indoor championship
• This is UVA’s 10th appearance in the prestigious tournament
• The Cavaliers hosted the championship for five straight years from 2011-15 at the Boar’s Head Sports Club

#7 Virginia 4, #13 Florida Gators 2

Singles competition

1. #45 Emma Navarro (VA) def. McCartney Kessler (UF) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
2. Alicia Dudeney (UF) vs. #54 Elaine Chervinsky (VA) 6-2, 4-6, 3-5, unfinished
3. #61 Marlee Zein (UF) def. #28 Natasha Subhash (VA) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2
4. Sofia Munera (VA) def. #84 Emma Shelton (UF) 6-1, 6-3
5. Sara Ziodato (VA) def. Carly Briggs (UF) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
6. Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. Sydney Berlin (UF) 6-4, 7-5

Doubles competition

1. Amber O’Dell/Emma Navarro (VA) def. #6 Carly Briggs/Marlee Zein (UF) 6-1
2. #27 Alicia Dudeney/Bente Spee (UF) def. Elaine Chervinsky/Natasha Subhash (VA) 7-6 (10-8)
3. McCartney Kessler/Emma Shelton (UF) def. Hibah Shaikh/Sofia Munera (VA) 7-6 (7-3)

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (4,6,3,5,1)