Virginia Wins Share of First ACC Title Despite Loss at No. 15 Miami
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April 20, 2014
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 9 Virginia earned a share of its first ACC women’s tennis regular-season title despite its 5-2 loss at No. 15 Miami Sunday (April 20) at Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
The Cavaliers, whose nine-match ACC winning streak ended with the loss, finish 12-2 in the ACC and share their first league title with No. 7 North Carolina, No. 17 Clemson and Miami.
The Hurricanes won the doubles point and received singles wins from Monique Albuquerque, Lina Lileikite, Clementina Riobueno and No. 36 Stephanie Wagner.
Sophomores Maci Epstein (Winter Park, Fla.) and Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) earned singles victories for the Cavaliers.
Miami struck first by winning the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 2. No. 21 Riobueno and Albuquerque defeated No. 11 Julia Elbaba (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) and Rachel Pierson (Princeton, N.J.) 8-5 on court one. The Hurricanes clinched the point when No. 40 Melissa Bolivar and Kelsey Laurente defeated Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) and Li Xi (Kunming, China) 8-6 on court two. Collins and Epstein held a 7-5 edge over Lileikite and Wagner on court three when the point was clinched.
Epstein tied the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Bolivar on court five. Miami regained a 2-1 lead with Albuquerque’s 6-2 7-5 win over Caryssa Peretz (Cherry Hill, N.J.) on court six.
Collins tied the match at 2-2 with a 7-5, 7-5 win over No. 62 Laurente on court two. Lileikite upset Nauta 6-4, 7-5 on court three and Riobueno rallied to clinch the win with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Pierson on court four. Wagner closed the scoring with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Elbaba on court one.
The Cavaliers return to action at the ACC Tournament, held April 23-27 at the Cary Tennis Center in Cary, N.C. No. 3 seed Virginia will play a quarterfinal match on Friday (April 25).