No. 20 UVA hosts Towson Saturday to begin dual season
Posted on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, 4:52 pm
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Courtesy UVA Media Relations
The No. 20 Virginia women’s tennis team opens the 2020 dual season on Saturday, hosting Towson in a 1 p.m. match at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.
Fans can keep up with the action through live stats and live streams of individual courts linked at VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get updates by following the program’s official Twitter account (@UVAWomensTennis). Admission is free to the public.
CAVALIERS IN THE RANKINGS
Virginia enters the dual season as the No. 20 team in the nation after a solid 2018-19 campaign and a 2019 fall tournament season. The Cavaliers are one of seven teams from the ACC ranked in the ITA preseason top 25 as half of the league is represented in the rankings. Virginia finished last season ranked No. 21 after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
On an individual basis, the Cavaliers have three players in the ITA women’s singles rankings. Freshman Natasha Subhash leads the way at No. 30, while redshirt junior Rosie Johanson comes in at No. 35 and sophomore Sofia Munera is No. 78.
THE HOOS LAST SEASON
In the 2018-19 season, Virginia advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships for the second straight season under head coach Sara O’Leary while posting an 18-9 record on the season. The Cavaliers went 8-6 in ACC play to finish seventh in the standings and advanced to the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship. Then-senior Meghan Kelley earned All-ACC honors and earned at-large selections to the NCAA Championships in singles and in doubles with Munera. Kelley was named the ITA Atlantic Region Senior Player of the Year and Most Improved Senior Player, while freshman Amber O’Dell was named the ITA Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year.
A LOOK AT TOWSON
Towson will play Saint Francis on Friday night before heading to Charlottesville for the Saturday matchup with the Cavaliers. Towson went 13-13 and fell to second-seeded James Madison in the first round of the CAA Championships. Sophomore Phoebe Collins led the squad a year ago as a freshman with a 13-7 record and led the team with a 4-1 mark in CAA play.
THE CAVALIERS VS. THE TIGERS
Towson and Virginia have faced each other one time in the history of the two programs with a match in the 2016-17 season. Virginia took that lone meeting by a score of 6-1 in the regular-season finale that was played at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Four current members of the Virginia women’s tennis team played in that match with Johanson and seniors Hunter Bleser, Camille Favero and Chloe Gullickson all grabbing victories as part of their freshman season.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia is coming off a weekend that saw the squad split with four players heading to Florida for the Orlando Invitational and three players competing in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in California. Subhash went undefeated in singles in Florida to lead the Cavaliers in action there, while Vivian Glozman won the consolation championship in California and turned in a runner-up finish in doubles with Bleser.
UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia will return to action next weekend, traveling to compete in the ITA Kickoff Weekend as part of a four-team regional at Kansas. The Cavaliers will face No. 17 California in the opening match of the weekend on Friday, while host No. 19 Kansas will face No. 22 Tennessee. The winners of Friday’s matches will face off on Saturday for a chance to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships (Feb. 7-10) in Chicago. The losers of Friday’s matches will play each other on Saturday in the consolation match.
