No. 11 Virginia Falls 5-2 at No. 5 Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. –  The No. 11 Virginia women’s tennis team (6-1) fell 5-2 at No. 5 Michigan (4-1) on Saturday (Feb. 3) at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This was the first loss of the season for the Cavaliers.

Michigan won the doubles point and opened a 3-1 lead in singles. Senior Sara Ziodato picked up a straight-set victory on court four to make it 3-2, but Michigan won third sets on courts six and three for the 5-2 victory.

Juniors Elaine Chervinsky and Mélodie Collard opened the competition with a top-10 win, defeating Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, who are No. 8 in the ITA Doubles rankings, 6-2, but the Wolverines took courts two and three to earn the point.

Chervinksy also picked up a win in singles, downing Piper Charney 6-3, 7-5 on court five.

Ziodato played the tightest match of the day, winning both of her sets in tiebreakers.

FROM HEAD COACH SARA O’LEARY
“First, congrats to Michigan on the win. It was a hard fought match and they earned the win. This was a great test for us before indoors. It’s important for us to see what we need to work on early in the season and we learned a lot from this match. I’m proud of the fight we showed today but we need to reflect on this match and pay attention to the little details that made the difference today.”

ON THE HORIZON

• The Cavaliers will head to Seattle for the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, being held Feb. 9-12 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center and the Seattle Tennis Club

Singles
No. 1 — No. 10 Kari Miller (U-M) def. No. 86 Annabelle Xu (Virginia), 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 — No. 39 Julia Fliegner (U-M) def. No. 46 Hibah Shaikh (Virginia), 6-0, 7-6(5)
No. 3 —  Jaedan Brown (U-M) def. Natasha Subhash (Virginia), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
No. 4 — No. 88 Sara Ziodato (Virginia) def. No. 82 Gala Mesochoritou (U-M), 7-6(4), 7-6(3)
No. 5 — Elaine Chervinsky (Virginia) def. Piper Charney (U-M), 6-3, 7-5
No. 6 — No. 47 Lily Jones (U-M) def. No. 82 Melodie Collard (Virginia), 5-7, 7-5, 6-2

Doubles
No. 1 — Melodie Collard/Elaine Chervinsky (Virginia) def. No. 8 Jaedan Brown/Kari Miller (U-M), 6-2
No. 2 — Anna Ross/Lily Jones (U-M) def. No. 48 Natasha Subhash/Hibah Shaikh (Virginia), 6-3
No. 3 — Reese Miller/Piper Charney (U-M) def. Annabelle Xu/Sara Ziodato (Virginia), 7-5

Order of Completion: Doubles 1-2-3; Singles 1-5-2-4-6-3