CARY, N.C. – Tennessee women’s tennis senior Elza Tomase secured a spot in the title match of the 2024 ITA All-American Championships on Saturday at Cary Tennis Park. Tomase is the first Lady Vol in program history to reach the singles final.
In the singles main draw semifinals, No. 62 Elza Tomase nabbed a 6-4, 6-1 victory against No. 43 Theadora Rabman of North Carolina. The senior led the entirety of the match and never looked back. Tomase is slated to face No. 44 Maria Sholokhova of Wisconsin in the championship at noon on Sunday.
“Two weeks ago, we took the team through a very intensive training session combined with vulnerable conversations,” head coach Alison Ojeda stated. “Elza Tomase and Catherine Aulia led the team both verbally and emotionally all weekend long. The main thing they kept saying to the rest of the team was simply to keep going after it and to be all in. Obviously, that’s way harder to do than it is to say, but the first step towards it is truly believing in that mindset and allowing yourself to start doing. When the weekend ended, Elza was specific with her comments to the team; I’ll leave those words to just our team. But the reason I say it now is because she is giving a championship effort and attitude in every match she plays. We all know how good she is, but now she’s showing herself! I’m very happy for her and also excited for her to make history.”
The win marked the Liepaja, Latvia, native’s seventh straight win of the tournament and her sixth victory over a ranked foe of the young season.
No. 81 Aulia concluded her singles run in Cary on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-6, 0-6 to Georgia’s No. 2 Dasha Vidmanova. Over the course of the tournament, Aulia tallied four singles victories, each over ranked opponents.
Results:
Singles
#62 Elza Tomase def. #43 Theadora Rabman 6-4, 6-1
#2 Dasha Vidmanova def. #81 Catherine Aulia 6-3, 6-0
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