It was a weekend of double excitement for the Virginia University women’s tennis team. The Cavaliers traveled to Florida over the weekend to compete in a doubleheader against both No. 13 Miami and Florida State. After losing 1-6 to the Hurricanes on Friday, the Cavaliers got a 4-3 victory over the Seminoles, on Sunday afternoon.
Coach Sara O’Leary explained: “I’m also really proud of Elaine Chervinsky. She handled the moment like a pro and took it head-on. She’s an unbelievable competitor, and she showed that today.” Against Miami, Virginia sophomore Elaine Chervinsky, junior Sara Ziodato and senior Natasha Subhash held on the longest before finally falling 3-6 to fifth-year senior Daevenia Achong and fourth-year junior Maya Tahan.
Singles were more of the same for the Cavaliers, who continued to struggle. Adams lost to Achong 2-6, 1-6 not long before Pfennig accomplished the same task, defeating Shaikh by the same score of 2-6, 1-6. After these first three singles defeats, the Cavaliers rallied to put up a bit more resistance against the apparently dominant Hurricanes.
Next up, Chervinsky pulled out the sole victory of the afternoon for the Cavaliers. Ziodato finished last after an absolute battle. Mack took the first set 7-6 before Ziodato rallied for a 6-3 victory in the second. Against Florida State, Chervinsky and Subhash were the first to finish, taking down seniors Vic Allen and Kianah Motosono.
Shaikh and Ziodato were right behind them, shutting down sophomore Olympe Lancelot and freshman Kristyna Lavickova 6-2. The first two singles matches went to Florida State, as Adams lost to Allen 2-6, 1-6 and Shaikh fell to Schoppe 2-6, 3-6.
The Cavaliers were not going down without a fight, however, as Ziodato downed graduate student Mila Saric 6-4, 6-2 to even the match score. Virginia took the lead once again with a 6-2, 6-4 Subhash victory over Arkadianou.
Collard attempted to maintain momentum in favor of the Cavaliers, overcoming a 1-6 first-set defeat to battle to a tiebreaker for the second set. An incredibly high-stakes third set resulted, in which Chervinsky powered through to a convincing 6-2 victory.
