SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 15 Virginia women’s tennis team (8-3, 2-1 ACC) picked up a 4-2 road victory at No. 16 Syracuse (9-1, 3-1 ACC) on Friday (March 3).
Virginia took the doubles point and won on singles courts three, five and six to hand the Orange their first loss of the season. Mélodie Collard won the clincher on court six.
“I’m proud of the determination our team played with and continues to play with,” said head coach Sara O’Leary. “This was not an easy match today. Syracuse is a very good team who competed well and really made us earn the win today.”
Collard and Julia Adams opened the match with a dominant 6-0 win on doubles court one. Natasha Subhash and Elaine Chervinsky clinched the point with a 6-3 victory on court two.
Chervinsky put the Cavaliers up 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-1 win on singles court three. After Syracuse picked up a point on court four, Hibah Shaikh won 6-2, 6-4 on court five to go ahead 3-1. Syracuse made it 3-2 with a win on court two.
The final two courts were tight battles. Adams rebounded from a 6-4 loss in her first set to win her second in a tiebreaker, 7-5, to force a third set on court one. Collard won her first set 6-4, but lost a tiebreaker 7-4 to go to a third set on court six. Collard won the decider 6-0 to clinch the match. Adams was leading 2-0 in her third set when play was halted.
“I thought Hibah and Elaine did a great job staying focused on their courts, making adjustments when needed and simply keeping their head down and focusing on what they needed to do,” O’Leary said. “Mélodie did a fantastic job going after her shots in that third set and finishing her match on her terms. Julia was down 6-4, 5-3, 40-15, but never went away. I believe her ability to compete, stay out there and take that match to a third helped Mélodie and was an amazing example of how resilient this team is.”
The Cavaliers close out the weekend by playing at Boston College (7-5, 0-4 ACC) on Sunday at 10 a.m. There will not be live stats or video for the match.
#15 Virginia 4, #16 Syracuse 2
Singles competition
- Erman,Zeynep (SYR) vs. #38 Julia Adams (VA) 6-4, 6-7, 0-2, unfinished
- Kanapatskaya,Viktor (SYR) def. #110 Natasha Subhash (VA) 6-4, 6-3
- Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Kimoto,Miyuka (SYR) 6-4, 6-1
- Kozyreva,Polina (SYR) def. Sara Ziodato (VA) 6-4, 6-1
- #92 Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. Ito,Shiori (SYR) 6-2, 6-4
- Melodie Collard (VA) def. Fonte,Ines (SYR) 6-4, 6-7, 6-0
Doubles competition
- #41 Melodie…