Women's Tennis Edged by Duke 4-2 in NTI Quarterfinals

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CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia women’s tennis team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, falling 4-2 to No. 6 Duke in the quarterfinals of the 2011 ITA National Team Indoor Championships at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. The No. 23 Cavaliers, the lowest ranked team in the field at No. 23, will play one more match in the tournament on Sunday, a consolation matchup with No. 20 Northwestern at 4 p.m.

“Congrats to Duke as they played well today,” said Virginia head coach Mark Guilbeau. “I was just as proud of our team today as I was yesterday [in the win over No. 3 Baylor]. Again, it was a complete, combined team effort. We fought from the beginning, coming from behind to win the doubles point. That is a sign of good things to come. We were able to win three first sets and were 10-15 minutes away from being able to put ourselves in a good position to win. Give Duke credit for coming back as it was more about what they did than what we didn’t do. We will learn from it and practice those things we can do to make ourselves better. Our team is really hungry to come back tomorrow.”

Virginia (7-1) took the early 1-0 lead in the match by rallying to win the doubles point. The Cavaliers trailed by a break in all three matches early and Duke took the early edge by winning at No. 2. Maria Fuccillo (Rockville, Md.) and Rashmi Teltumbde (Mumbai, India) drew Virginia even as they rallied from down 6-3 to win 9-7 at No. 3 over Elizabeth Plotkin and Reka Zsilinszka. With the opening point on the line, the match at No. 1 went to a tiebreaker. Emily Fraser (Rye, N.Y.) and Hana Tomljanovic (Boca Raton, Fla.) won the breaker 7-4 over Ellah Nze and Monica Gorny to give Virginia the doubles point.

In singles, the Duke won three matches in straight sets to take a 3-1 lead. Rachel Kahan defeated Fuccillo at No. 5, Mary Clayton topped Caryssa Peretz (Cherry Hill, N.J.) at No. 6, and Zsilinszka defeated Tomljanovic at No. 3. Virginia cut the lead to 3-2 as Lindsey Hardenbergh (Fairfax Station, Va.) completed a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Nze at No. 2. Duke clinched the 4-2 win as Plotkin won in three sets over Erin Vierra (Norwell, Mass.) at No. 4.

The ITA National Team Indoor Championships continue Sunday and run through Monday at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Admission is free. Match times are 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. (Virginia vs. Northwestern) and 7:30 p.m.

#6 Duke 4, #23 Virginia 2

Doubles:
1. #10 Fraser/Tomljanovic (UVa) def. Nze/Gorny (Duke) 9-8(4)
2. Fahoum/Mar (Duke) def. #67 Hardenbergh/Vierra (UVa) 8-4
3. #51 Fuccillo/Teltumbde (UVa) def. Plotkin/Zsilinszka (Duke) 9-7

Singles:
1. #41 Emily Fraser (UVa) vs. Nadine Fahoum (Duke) 6-4, 6-7(1), 0-0 DNF
2. #67 Lindsey Hardenbergh (UVa) def. #48 Ellah Nze (Duke) 6-3, 7-6(3)
3. #9 Reka Zsilinszka (Duke) def. Hana Tomljanovic (UVa) 6-3, 6-2
4. #86 Elizabeth Plotkin (Duke) def. #54 Erin Vierra (UVa) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
5. #57 Rachel Kahan (Duke) def. Maria Fuccillo (UVa) 6-0, 6-1
6. #42 Mary Clayton (Duke) def. Caryssa Peretz (UVa) 6-2, 6-1

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