Charlottesville, Va. – South Carolina women’s tennis fell 1-4 to No. 8 Virginia on Saturday in the championship match of the ITA Kickoff Weekend Virginia Regional. The Gamecocks dropped a close doubles point and were bested 3-1 in singles.
The doubles point was a nail-biter with all three matches needing tiebreakers for the decision. From the top spot in the lineup, Ayana Akli and Gracie Mulville had an even match throughout, but struggled through the tiebreaker, dropping it 7-2. From the No. 2 spot, McKenna Schaefbauer and Allie Gretkowski battled back after falling a break early in the match to force their set to the tiebreak. The Cavaliers ultimately came out on top of that one 7-4 to secure the doubles point. The No. 3 court had just begun their tiebreak when play was suspended.
From there, play moved to singles where No. 50 Elaine Chervinsky earned the first singles point on Court 3 over Elise Mills.
Akli earned the Gamecocks’ only point of the match, taking down No. 34 Julie Adams in straight sets 6-1, 6-3. The senior now has five straight wins over ranked opponents with all five of them coming in straight sets.
The Cavaliers closed out the match with two more singles wins on Courts 4 and 6 to win the match.
South Carolina will continue their non-conference matches on Feb., 14 when they travel to Clemson, S.C. to take on the Tigers. The match will begin at 3 p.m.
For all the latest South Carolina women’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockWTennis).
#8 Virginia 4, South Carolina 1
Doubles order of finish: (1,2)
- Julia Adams/Melodie Collard (VA) def. Ayana Akli/Gracie Mulville (SC) 7-6 (7-2)
- Natasha Subhash/Annabelle Xu (VA) def. Allie Gretkowski/McKenna Schaefbauer (SC) 7-6 (7-4)
- Elaine Chervinsky/Sara Ziodato (VA) vs. Elise Mills/Alice Otis (SC) 6-6, unfinished
Singles order of finish: (3,1,4,6)
- #20 Ayana Akli (SC) def. #34 Julia Adams (VA) 6-1, 6-3
- #90 Natasha Subhash (VA) vs. Gracie Mulville (SC) 4-6, 6-2, 5-1, unfinished
- #50 Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Elise Mills (SC) 6-1, 6-3
- Sara Ziodato (VA) def. Ana Cruz (SC) 6-4, 6-0
- #62 Annabelle Xu (VA) vs. Misa Malkin (SC) 6-4, 1-6, 2-2, unfinished
- #77 Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. Alice Otis (SC) 7-6 (9-7), 6-2