WACO, TEXAS – Virginia women’s tennis seniors Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard have advanced to the final of the NCAA Doubles Championship being held at the Hurd Tennis Center Nov. 17-24 in Waco, Texas.
Chervinsky and Collard defeated Rachel Gailis and Alicia Dudeney of Florida on Saturday (Nov. 23) 1-6, 6-3, [10-8] to advance to Sunday’s Championship match where they will face 5-8 seed Olivia Center and Kate Fakih of UCLA. The match follows the NCAA Women’s Singles final with first serve not happening before 1 p.m. ET.
After dropping the first set, Chervinsky and Collard battled back in the second set, winning the second 6-3 to extend the match to a match tiebreaker. In the match tiebreak, the pair fell behind 5-0 before roaring back to take an 8-7 lead in the tiebreaker. Gailis and Dudeney then tied the tiebreaker at 8-all before Chervinsky and Collard took the final two points to win the match and clinch a spot in the final. Chervinsky and Collard have won all four matches in the tournament in a match tiebreak.
The duo opened the 32-team draw with a 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (7) against No. 17 Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs of Washington. After logging a 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (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.
Collard and Chervinsky are the first UVA team to ever advance to the final and are vying to become the first NCAA Doubles Champions in program history. Collard advanced to the semifinals in 2023 with her partner Julia Adams. Chervinsky and Collard fell in the opening round in last season’s championship.
Collard and Chervinsky were ranked No. 3 in the preseason doubles rankings, but were not seeded in the tournament.
This is the first year that the singles and doubles championships are being contested in the fall instead of after the NCAA team championship in the spring.
Chervinsky also made a deep run in the singles championship, advancing to the quarterfinals after stunning the tournament’s top seed, Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M 6-3, 6-0 in the Round of 16. She also defeated 9-16 seed Alexis Blokhina of Stanford in the Round of 32. With her quarterfinal finish, she will earn ITA Singles All-America honors at the end of the season.
Virginia had a program-record five players competing in the individual championships. Junior Annabelle Xu advanced to the second round of both the singles and doubles draws, playing…