No. 4 Virginia Closes Road Trip with 4-3 Win at No. 20 Duke
DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 4 Virginia women’s tennis team (18-3, 10-1 ACC) closed its weekend road trip with a 4-3 win at No. 20 Duke (13-7, 6-5 ACC) on Sunday (April 7) at the Ambler Tennis Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Virginia won the doubles point and took a 3-0 lead in the match. The Blue Devils won back-to-back singles matches to make it 3-2 before sophomore Annabelle Xu clinched the victory with a win on the top court.
Duke opened the match with a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles, but juniors Mélodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky evened it up with a 6-4 win at No. 1. Grad student Natasha Subhash and senior Hibah Shaikh clinched the point with a 7-5 win at No. 2.
In singles, Chervinsky won 6-0, 6-1 on five to put UVA ahead 2-0. Shaikh followed with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2.
Duke won 6-4, 6-1 on three to earn their first point. The Blue Devils’ Karolina Berankova won a tiebreaker 10-8 to decide the second set on six to earn Duke’s second point and tighten the match at 3-2.
Xu had lost her first set 6-1 against Emma Jackson, but she edged Jackson 7-5 in the second set to force a third set. The third set was tied 4-4, but Xu held serve to go up 5-4. Xu then broke Jackson’s serve to take the final set 6-4 and clinch the victory for the Cavaliers.
The final court was in a tiebreaker as Xu clinched the match with Katie Codd of Duke winning it 7-4 to close out the match.
The victory was Virginia’s fifth top-25 victory of the season.
FROM HEAD COACH SARA O’LEARY
““First off, I just want to say good match to Duke on a hard fought good match today. They really pushed us and played well. We didn’t play our best in doubles but we stayed the course and just kept competing. We stayed composed, organized and played with a lot of courage which made the difference in that doubles point. In singles, Elaine and Hibah came out with such great focus and conviction and played some really high level tennis today. As much as we were struggling at the other four positions, everyone fought to earn us that victory today. I’m extremely proud of the resilience and grit of this team. They showed a lot of heart today which they do everyday and I’m so grateful I get to coach such an amazing group of women who care so much about this team. Now it’s time for us to recover and get back to work to prepare for two matches at home this weekend.”
“Lastly, I just want to congratulate Danielle Collins on back to back tournament wins! She’s playing some incredibly high level tennis and it’s been really inspiring to watch. Go Hoos!”
ON THE HORIZON
- The Cavaliers close out the regular season with a pair of home games next weekend, hosting No. 19 Miami on Friday, April 12 at 4 p.m. and Florida State on Sunday, April 14 at noon for the Senior Day match
- Brackets for the ACC Championship will be released on Sunday, April 14
#4 Virginia 4, #20 Duke 3
Singles competition
- #92 Annabelle Xu (VA) def. #82 Emma Jackson (DUKE) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
- #22 Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. #69 Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) 6-3, 6-4
- #88 Iuliia Bryzgalova (DUKE) def. #59 Sara Ziodato (VA) 6-1, 6-4
- #101 Katie Codd (DUKE) def. Natasha Subhash (VA) 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (4)
- #91 Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Brianna Shvets (DUKE) 6-0, 6-1
- Karolina Berankova (DUKE) def. Melodie Collard (VA) 6-3, 7-6 (8)
Doubles competition
- #12 Melodie Collard/Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Katie Codd/Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) 6-4
- #31 Natasha Subhash/Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. Emma Jackson/Karolina Berankova (DUKE) 7-5
- Brianna Shvets/Iuliia Bryzgalova (DUKE) def. Annabelle Xu/Sara Ziodato (VA) 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (5,2,3,6,1,4)
T-3:34