Elbaba, Doubles Teams Advance at ITA All-American Qualifying

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Oct. 2, 2012

LOS ANGELES – The Virginia women’s tennis team had one singles player and two doubles teams advance during the first day of qualifying at the ITA All-American Championships. Those Cavaliers will look to reach the main draw of the event during the final day of qualifying on Wednesday at the Riviera Country Club.

First-year Julia Elbaba (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) advanced in singles, continuing her undefeated start to her collegiate career. After reaching the qualifying draw with three straight-set wins in pre-qualifying, Elbaba opened Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-0 win over 41st-ranked Katie Le of Santa Clara. Later in the day she downed fellow pre-qualifier Blair Seideman of Yale, 6-4, 6-2. She will play either Francesca Segarelli of Florida State or Stefanie Tan of TCU in the final round of qualifying.

Three other Cavaliers fell in their first round qualifying matches. Maria Fuccillo (Rockville, Md.) dropped a 3-6, 6-1 6-3 decision to Whitney Ritchie of Oklahoma. Erin Vierra (Norwell, Mass.) fell to Lindsay Graff of Princeton, 6-3, 6-1. Li Xi (Kunming, China) suffered a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Danielle Collins of Florida.

Both Virginia teams in doubles qualifying won their first round match on Tuesday. Elbaba and Fuccillo, who advanced from pre-qualifying, downed the SMU duo of Edyta Cieplucha and Aleksandra Malyarchikova 8-6. Xi teamed with Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) to defeat Vanderbilt’s Ashleigh Antal and Marie Casares 9-7. Both teams look to win two more matches on Wednesday to reach the main draw.