WACO, TEXAS – Virginia women’s tennis seniors Elaine Chervinsky and Mélodie Collard won the 2024-25 NCAA Doubles Championship on Sunday (Nov. 24) at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
Chervinsky and Collard defeated UCLA’s all-freshman team of Olivia Center and Kate Fakih 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the final to win the first NCAA Doubles title in program history.
In the first year that the NCAA Individual championships have been contested in the fall instead of after the team championship in the spring, the Virginia tandem won all five of their matches in the tournament in third-set 10-point super tiebreakers.
𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒!!! pic.twitter.com/GYSmKo7GRg
— Virginia Women’s Tennis (@UVAWomensTennis) November 24, 2024
The UVA duo opened the 32-team draw with a 7-5, 2-6, 10-7 against No. 17 Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs of Washington. After logging a 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 against Georgia’s Guillermina Grant and Aysegul Mert, they defeated 5-8 seed Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby of UNC to advance to the semifinals.
In Saturday’s semifinals against Rachel Gailis and Alicia Dudeney of Florida, Chervinsky and Collard dropped the first set then battled back with a 6-3 win in the second set to force the tiebreaker. The Cavaliers fell behind 5-0 in the breaker before roaring back to take an 8-7 lead. Gailis and Dudeney tied it at eight-all before Chervinsky and Collard took the final two points to win the match and clinch a spot in the final.
In Sunday’s final, Collard and Chervinsky went down an early break in the first set, but broke back to go back on serve at 4-5, but then Center and Fakih broke back to take the first set 6-4. Chervinsky and Collard took the second set 6-3 to force the decider. Virginia had the early momentum, going up 4-0 in the breaker, but UCLA won two points ahead of the changeover to make it 4-2. UCLA staved off one match point at 9-4, but double-faulted on the second match point, ending the match.
“We’ve worked so hard for this,” Chervinsky said. “We’ve had such an amazing week and such a fun week that I think I need some time to let it sink in. But the fact that we earned this as a team just makes it so much better. So much sweeter. And it’s a full team effort. It wasn’t just us on the court. It was our coach, Pichi [Gina Suarez-Malaguti]. It was Coach Sara [O’Leary]. Carlos [Benatzky]. Everyone out there. Our teammates in the stands, and my…