Women's Tennis Tops Old Dominion 6-1 in Season Opener

Story Links

CHARLOTTESVILLE The Virginia women’s tennis team opened its 2009 dual match schedule Wednesday with a 6-1 win over Old Dominion at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. The Cavaliers won a close doubles point before taking five of six singles matches to post their first win of the season.

The Cavaliers (1-0) opened the match by taking the doubles point. Lindsey Hardenbergh (Fairfax Station, Va.) and Maggie Yahner (Las Vegas, Nev.) gave UVa a win at No. 3 doubles, topping Marija Citic and Irina Dementyeva 8-3. The Monarchs (2-1) drew even as they won a battle of nationally ranked teams at No. 1, as 40th ranked Nadine Fahoum and Charleen Haarhoff defeated 32nd ranked Emily Fraser (Rye, N.Y.) and Jennifer Stevens (Miami, Fla) 8-4. Amanda Rales (Bethesda, Md.) and Neela Vaez (Perrysburg, Ohio) clinched the opening point for the Cavaliers as they rallied from down 6-5 for an 8-6 win at No. 2 over Margarita Spicin and Joanna Dobrowolska.

In singles, the Cavaliers quickly extended their lead to 3-0 as Yahner topped Citic 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 6 position and Hardenbergh cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Spicin at No. 3 singles. Fraser clinched the dual match for Virginia as she topped No. 88 Haarhoff 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Vaez added a win at No. 5 singles, defeating Dementyeva 6-0, 7-5 and Rales topped Dobrowolska in a third-set suprebreaker at No. 4 singles to close out the match.

“We wanted to open up the season with a good match and that was what we got,” said head coach Mark Guilbeau. “I thought we did a good job early on to fight in doubles and pick up the point against a team in ODU that is going to win a lot of doubles points. We used that momentum over the first 15-20 minutes of singles. We built up some big leads, but give ODU credit, they kept fighting throughout and made us earn it.”

Virginia returns to action on Saturday as it hosts No. 25 TCU at the Boyd Tinsley Courts. Match time is 1 p.m. and admission is free.

No. 41 Virginia 6, Old Dominion 1

Doubles
1. #40 Fahoum/Haarhoff (ODU) def. #32 Fraser/Stevens (UVa) 8-4
2. Rales/Vaez (UVa) def. Dobrowolska/Spicin (ODU) 8-6
3. Hardenbergh/Yahner (UVa) def. Citic/Dementyeva (ODU) 8-3

Singles
1. Nadine Fahoum (ODU) def. #42 Jennifer Stevens (UVa) 0-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. #82 Emily Fraser (UVa) def. #88 Charleen Haarhoff (ODU) 6-4, 6-2
3. Lindsey Hardenbergh (UVa) def. Margarita Spicin (ODU) 6-0, 6-1
4. Amanda Rales (UVa) def. Joanna Dobrowolska (ODU) 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-3
5. Neela Vaez (UVa) def. Irina Dementyeva (ODU) 6-0, 7-5
6. Maggie Yahner (UVa) def. Marija Citic (ODU) 6-2, 6-0

Order of Finish
Doubles: 3,1,2
Singles: 6,3,2,5,1,4