Virginia Women’s Tennis | Virginia advances to the ACC semifinals with a 4-3 win over Miami

CARY, NC The Virginia women’s tennis team (18-5, 10-3 ACC) picked up a 4-3 win against Miami (15-6, 9-4 ACC) in a quarterfinal match at the 2023 ACC Womens Tennis Championship on Friday (April 21). ) at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, NC

The Cavaliers won match point to jump out to a 3-1 lead against the Hurricanes, but Miami came back to tie the match at 3-3. Freshman Annabelle Xu scored the winning point for the Cavaliers, winning the tiebreaker 8-6 and ending the second set on four courts.

No. 4 Virginia advances to face No. 1 North Carolina (28-0, 12-0 ACC) on Saturday (April 22) at 10 a.m.

*NOTE* Due to forecast inclement weather, Saturday’s semifinal will be played indoors at Duke.

“I’m really proud of the composure, grit and belief we played with today,” said Virginia head coach Sara O’Leary. – Miami is a very good team that always makes you deserve to win. Regardless of the situation in each individual match, we hung in there and it paid off. I’m proud of the way Annabelle handled the moment of being the last match on the field. He stayed calm and confident in what he was doing all year and I’m glad he got the chance to be in that situation because it’s an incredible experience when you take it in the right direction and have teammates who love and support you. It was a good team win today, but now we focus on recovery and tomorrow’s match. Go Up!”

Xu and Ziodato opened the match with a 6-3 win against Audrey Boch-Collins and Mia Mack on triple court. Natasha Subhash and Elaine Chervinsky clinched the point with a 6-3 win over Alexa Noel and Mia Mack on court two.

Ziodato cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 win against Maya Tahan at singles in six, giving UVA a 2-0 lead. Miami got on the board with a win over No. 5 singles on the Supreme Court. Shaikh won 6-4, 6-0 against Mack in five to give UVA a 3-1 lead.

Miami won two tight second sets on courts two and three and took the first 7-5 and tied the second in tiebreaking 8-6.

Xu beat Boch-Collins 6-4 in the first set, but in the second set the two were tied 6-6, forcing a tiebreaker. The tie was 6-6 before Xu won two straight points to win 8-6 and clinch the win for the Cavaliers.

Miami won the team’s regular season meeting 6-1. The Hurricanes were the 5th seed in the tournament. Virginia is ranked 10th in the latest ITA Rankings and Miami is ranked 13th.

With the win, the Cavaliers advance to the semifinals for the third straight year and face the Tar Heels in the semifinals for the third straight year. Last year, the UVA Cavaliers upset North Carolina 4-2 in the semifinals to reach the championship game, where they fell to Duke 4-1.

Due to the change in venue, Saturday’s game will not be streamed on ACCNX, but live field video will be available from Duke’s Playsight cameras.

Virginia 4, Miami 3
Singles competition

1. #5 Alexa Noel (UMW) def. #51 Natasha Subhash (VA-W) 6-2, 6-2
2. #105 Daevenia Achong (UMW) def. #54 Julia Adams (VA-W) 6-3, 7-5
3. #83 Isabella Pfennig (UMW) def. Elaine Chervinsky (VA-W) 6-1, 7-6 (8-6)
4. #77 Annabelle Xu (VA-W) def. Audrey Boch-Collins (UMW) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6)
5. #120 Hibah Shaikh (VA-W) def. Mia Mack (UMW) 6-0, 6-4
6. Sara Ziodato (VA-W) def. Maya Tahan (UMW) 6-1, 6-0

Singles competition

1. #13 Melodie Collard/Julia Adams (VA-W) vs. #44 Daevenia Achong/Maya Tahan (UMW) 5-5, tied
2. #34 Natasha Subhash/Elaine Chervinsky (VA-W) def. #29 Alexa Noel/Isabella Pfennig (UMW) 6-3
3. Sara Ziodato/Annabelle Xu (VA-W) def. Audrey Boch-Collins/Mia Mack (UMW) 6-3

Ranking order: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,1,5,2,3,4)