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Virginia Advances to ACC Championship Semifinal

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ROME, Ga. –  The Virginia women’s tennis team (14-5, 9-4 ACC) advanced to the semifinals of the 2021 ACC Women’s Tennis Championship after downing Duke (15-6, 9-4 ACC) by a 4-2 score on Friday (Apr. 23) at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga.

The match began on the outdoor courts and resumed on the Rome Tennis Center indoor courts after a two-hour delay. Junior Amber O’Dell (New Milford, N.J.) had the clinching victory on singles court five.

Virginia will take on top-seed North Carolina (24-0) on Saturday (Apr. 24) in the semifinals. Match time is set for 10 a.m.

In doubles, Virginia opened up an early advantage as senior Rosie Johanson (Vancouver, Canada) and freshman Emma Navarro (Charleston, S.C.) picked up a 6-1 win over Duke’s No. 7 ranked doubles team of Meible Chi and Margaryta Bilokin. Senior Vivian Glozman (Bellevue, Wash.) and freshman Hibah Shaikh (Teaneck, N.J.) clinched the point with a 6-3 victory on court three.

Five of the six courts finished their first sets before the rain came and halted play. Virginia and Duke also had to wait for North Carolina and Wake Forest to complete their match before resuming play.

After a two-hour delay, the Cavaliers and Blue Devils picked up where they left off. Junior Sofia Munera (Pereira, Colombia) finished off a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Karolina Berankova to give UVA a 2-0 lead. Duke won in straight sets on court two to make it 2-1. Navarro closed out a 6-1, 6-4 victory on court one against Kelly Chen to put UVA on the brink.

On court five, O’Dell had won her first set 6-1 against Margaryta Bilokin, but dropped the second 6-3. O’Dell won the decider 6-2 to clinch the victory for the Cavaliers.

Johanson had just begun a tiebreaker to decide her second set in a tight match on court two against No. 40 Chole Beck when play was abandoned.

FROM HEAD COACH SARA O’LEARY

“I’m so proud of the fight and execution by our team today. We have had some tough close losses over the past few weeks but that didn’t stop this team from putting in the work and making some adjustments that needed to be made. This group is very unified and resilient and today was an example of that. We are looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow!”

MATCH NOTES

  • Virginia is the No. 4 seed in the tournament
  • Duke and Virginia tied for fourth place in the conference standings. UVA earned the No. 4 seed by virtue of a regular-season 4-2 victory over Duke
  • Virginia is No. 13 in this week’s ITA rankings, Duke is No. 14
  • This will be Virginia’s first semifinal appearance since winning the ACC Championship in 2015
  • North Carolina won the in-season meeting between the two teams, 5-2, on Feb. 21
  • Saturday’s match sets up a battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked singles players in UNC’s Sara Daavettila and Emma Navarro. This will be the first meeting between the two as they did not play one another in February
  • The No. 4 seed is UVA’s highest seeding since 2015 when it won the title as the No. 4 seed
  • Virginia has made two trips to the finals since 1990 (the present format for the championship) in 2014 and 2015, winning the title both times under previous head coach Mark Gilbeau

FOLLOW ALONG

  • Live scoring will be available for all matches
  • There will not be court streams available for the matches
  • Sunday’s ACC Championship final will stream online through ACCNX, via the ESPN app, available through participating TV providers that carry ACCN

#13 Virginia 4, #14 Duke 2

Singles competition

  1. #2 Emma Navarro (VA) def. #44 Kelly Chen (DU) 6-1, 6-4
  2. #35 Georgia Drummy (DU) def. #9 Natasha Subhash (VA) 6-4, 6-1
  3. #100 Rosie Johanson (VA) vs. #40 Chloe Beck (DU) 6-7, 6-6, unfinished
  4. #37 Meible Chi (DU) def. Hibah Shaikh (VA) 6-4, 7-5
  5. Amber O’Dell (VA) def. Margaryta Bilokin (DU) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
  6. Sofia Munera (VA) def. Karolina Berankova (DU) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition

  1. #29 Emma Navarro/Rosie Johanson (VA) def. #7 Meible Chi/Margaryta Bilokin (DU) 6-1
  2. #16 Natasha Subhash/Sofia Munera (VA) vs. #9 Chloe Beck/Karolina Berankova (DU) 4-5, unfinished
  3. Vivian Glozman/Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. #35 Kelly Chen/Georgia Drummy (DU) 6-3

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (6,2,1,4,5)

Rain delay moved match indoors. Two-hour delay

Total playing time (not including delay): 3:05

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