No. 5 Virginia Women’s Tennis set to face No. 4 Texas in NCAA Quarterfinals Friday

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 5 seed Virginia women’s tennis team faces No. 4 seed Texas in the quarterfinals of the 2022 NCAA Women’s Tennis Team Championship on Friday, May 20 at 2 p.m. ET at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.

NOTE: The match was originally scheduled to be played at 4 p.m. but the NCAA Women’s Tennis Committee changed the match time due to forecasted windy conditions throughout the day.

HOW TO FOLLOW

• All matches will stream live on the TennisOne App
• Live scoring will be available through links posted on VirginiaSports.com

NCAA SEMIFINALS AND FINALS

• The winner of the Virginia/Texas match will face No. 1 North Carolina or No. 8 Pepperdine on Saturday, May 21 at 5 p.m. ET
• The National Championship match will take place on Sunday, May 22 at 8 p.m. ET
• All top eight seeds advanced to the quarterfinals
• The opposite side of the bracket includes No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Duke, No. 6 NC State and No. 7 Texas A&M
• Virginia is one of four teams from the ACC to advance to the quarterfinals, the most of any conference

NOTING THE CAVALIERS

• The Cavaliers (23-5) head into the quarterfinals going 12-1 in their last 13 matches including three wins over teams then-ranked in the top-3 of the ITA Rankings
• Emma Navarro retained her No. 1 singles ranking in the final regular-season ITA rankings and earned the top seed in the NCAA Singles Championship. Navarro is 23-1 this season and has won her last 12 completed matches
• Navarro has four wins against top-20 opponents in her last six matches. She was up 7-5, 3-0 against No. 4 Daria Frayman of Princeton in what would have been a fifth win in that same span when play was abandoned
• Natasha Subhash leads the team with 26 singles victories this season, going 14-4 on the No. 2 court
• The Cavaliers are a combined 42-7 on the top two courts this season
• Sara Ziodato is 8-1 in her last 10 matches (with one abandonment) with a 23-11 overall record
• Hibah Shaikh has clinched all three matches of  UVA’s matches in the NCAA Championship this year
• Shaikh is 25-11 in singles this season with a 19-5 mark in dual matches
• Navarro and Shaikh are ranked No. 3 in the latest ITA doubles rankings with an 11-5 record at No. 1
• Subhash and Elaine Chervinsky are 10-1 at No. 2 doubles this season
• Subhash was named to the 2022 Academic All-District At-Large District 3 Team Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America

VIRGINIA & THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Virginia is looking to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history
• This is the school’s third trip to the quarterfinals, also advancing in 2014 and 2016
• Virginia is the No. 5 seed in the championship. This is the second-highest seeding in program history after its No. 3 seed in the 2014 tournament
• Virginia is making its 21st appearance in the NCAA Women’s Tennis tourney and fourth-consecutive under head coach Sara O’Leary
• UVA was one of six schools to have both men’s and women’s teams advance to the Round of 16 (North Carolina, NC State, Texas, Stanford and Florida are the others) but is the only school with both its men’s and women’s teams in Champaign
• It is the third time in program history that both the men’s and women’s teams have advanced to the quarterfinals (2014, 2016, 2022)

SCOUTING TEXAS

• Texas won the 2021 NCAA Championship, the third in its program history (1993 and 1995)
• Texas (23-4) is the No. 4 seed in the tournament but is ranked No. 3 in the ITA Team Rankings
• Texas held the top spot in the national rankings for five consecutive polls prior to moving to No. 3 on Feb. 16. UT earned the No. 1 spot in last year’s final poll and was ranked No. 1 in each of the first four weekly polls this season, beginning on Jan. 5
• Peyton Stearns, the Big 12 Player of the Year, is ranked No. 2 in the ITA Singles Rankings with a 25-1 record. She was last year’s NCAA Championship MVP
• Navarro and Stearns played doubles together in the main draw of the Western & Southern Open (WTA 1000) in August of 2021
• Sophomore Kylie Collins is 25-9 in singles this year with a 13-6 mark on court two and is currently ranked No. 49
• Virginia is 2-0 all-time against Texas. The last meeting was a 4-3 victory by the Cavaliers in the second round of the 2013 NCAA Championship

ON THE HORIZON

• The NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will take place May 23-28 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Ill.