No. 11 Virginia Defeats No. 1 North Carolina 4-0

SEATTLE –  The No. 11 Virginia women’s tennis team (8-2) logged a 4-0 victory against No. 1 North Carolina (7-2) on Sunday (Feb. 11) in a back draw match of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle, Wash.

The Cavaliers won the doubles point and swept all six first sets to go on to hand North Carolina its first 4-0 defeat since 2012.

Juniors Mélodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky set the tone early, downing the No. 11 doubles team of Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig by a 6-1 score. Senior Hibah Shaikh and grad student Natasha Subhash clinched the point with a 6-3 win against No. 7 Abbey Forbes and Reilly Tran. The win was the 100th doubles victory in Subhash’s collegiate career.

Virginia carried the momentum into singles. Collard tallied a 6-0, 6-0 win against No. 45 Thea Rabman moments after the last of the first sets had been completed.

Senior Sara Ziodato gave Virginia its third point when she won a deciding point to close out a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Forbes, who is ranked No. 62 in singles.

Chervinsky won the clinching point for the Cavaliers with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Reilly Tran on court five.

FROM HEAD COACH SARA O’LEARY
“I’m really proud of the way our team responded after yesterday’s loss. We learned a lot from that loss and did a much better job starting today’s match with the energy, toughness and discipline I know we can bring. We talked a lot about having pride in the way we respond to adversity, and that’s what the team did today. Moving forward, it’s about bringing this type of energy and professionalism to the court every day. I’m really proud of our squad and looking forward to continuing to work and build.”

NOTES

• Natasha Subhash is the 7th player in program history to tally 100 doubles victories. She reached 100 career singles victories in October and ranks sixth in the Cavalier record book for all-time singles victories (105)
• Mélodie Collard’s victory against Thea Rabman was her second career win against a player ranked in the top 50
• Virginia’s last victory against a No. 1 team was a 4-2 win against No. 1 North Carolina in the 2022 ACC Semifinals
• This was Virginia’s first regular-season victory against UNC since 2013
• North Carolina had won four straight ITA National Team Indoor titles, as well as winning the 2023 NCAA Championship.
• Both Virginia head coach Sara O’Leary and associate head coach Gina Suarez-Malaguti are North Carolina alumnae
• Virginia went 2-1 at ITA Indoors with two wins against top 10 teams after opening play with a 5-2 win against No. 6 Pepperdine. UVA fell 4-1 against No. 5 Michigan on Saturday (Feb. 10)

UP NEXT

• Virginia begins ACC play with a pair of road matches at Notre Dame on Friday, Feb. 23 and at Louisville on Sunday, Feb. 25

#11 Virginia 4, #1 North Carolina 0
Singles competition

1. #28 Fiona Crawley (UNC) vs. #101 Annabelle Xu (VA) 3-6, 6-3, unfinished
2. #8 Carson Tanguilig (UNC) vs. #41 Hibah Shaikh (VA) 4-6, 6-6, unfinished
3. #7 Anika Yarlagadda (UNC) vs. Natasha Subhash (VA) 2-6, 6-1, 1-2, unfinished
4. #72 Sara Ziodato (VA) def. #62 Abbey Forbes (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
5. Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Reilly Tran (UNC) 6-4, 6-2
6. #93 Melodie Collard (VA) def. #45 Thea Rabman (UNC) 6-0, 6-0

Doubles competition

1. #44 Melodie Collard/Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. #11 Fiona Crawley/Carson Tanguilig (UNC) 6-1
2. #60 Natasha Subhash/Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. #7 Abbey Forbes/Reilly Tran (UNC) 6-3
3. Elizabeth Scotty/Anika Yarlagadda (UNC) vs. Sara Ziodato/Annabelle Xu (VA) 3-5, unfinished

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