Nauta/Xi Adavnce to ITA Intercollegiate Indoor Final

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Nov. 10, 2012

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. – The Virginia women’s tennis duo of Li Xi (Kunming, China) and Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) became the first Cavalier doubles team to reach the final of a major tournament, advancing to the championship match of the ITA Intercollegiate Indoors Championships on Saturday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Xi and Nauta reached the final with a 7-5, 6-2 semifinal win over Lorraine Guillermo and Khunpak Issara of Pepperdine. They will play the top-ranked duo of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria of USC in Sunday’s final.

It marks the second time in school history that Virginia has had a finalist at one of the three major individual tournaments. Earlier this fall, Julia Elbaba (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) became the first Cavalier finalist as she was the singles runner-up at the ITA All-American Championships.

The team of Maci Epstein (Winter Park, Fla.) and Erin Vierra (Norwell, Mass.) reached the final of the consolation draw with an 8-6 win over Sonya Latycheva and Agustina Sol-Eskenazi of Penn. The play USC’s Gabriella DeSimone and Zoe Scandalis in the consolation final on Sunday.