CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The day couldn’t have been better Saturday afternoon for the UVA women Tennis team’s first match on the new outdoor courts of the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar’s Head Resort. The Cavaliers (8-2, 4-1 ACC) were coming off two strong performances last week, defeating both Louisville and Notre Dame 6-1. The visiting Virginia Tech Hokies (3-8, 0-5 ACC) were looking to keep their momentum going after a 4-3 victory against Marshall last week. Having won the previous 24 meetings between the schools, the Cavaliers sought to continue their remarkable winning streak against their in-state rivals.
The Hoos got off to a great start early with strong performances from all their doubles teams. Freshman Emma Navarro and Redshirt Senior Rosie Johanson took care of business swiftly as they cruised to a 6-2 victory. Court 2 saw similar results with Sofia Munera and Natasha Subhash rolling to a 6-1 victory of their own. The Hokies were simply outmatched by the speed and precision of the skilled Cavalier duos as they took the first point of the match within 30 minutes.
Coming into the day, Senior Vivian Glozman and Junior Amber O’Dell had won all five of their matches together this season. On court 3, they faced fierce competition from Freshman Katie Andreini and Sophomore Erika Cheng. The young duo fought hard against their more-experienced opposition, managing to tie the match at 3 games a piece before it was stopped following the conclusion of the other doubles matches. Glozman and O’Dell will look to continue their undefeated streak next week against Clemson.
The perfect day continued for the Hoos as they steamrolled Virginia Tech in each of the six singles matches. The dominant day was highlighted by the court 5 match between two Freshman, UVA’s Hibah Shaikh and Tech’s Katie Andreini. After dropping the first set 7-6, Shaikh came out fired up, winning the second set with ease 6-0. She then took that momentum into the tie-breaking third set where she went on to win 10-5. The whole UVA team could be heard cheering on the new-comer Shaikh as her match was the last to wrap up.
The other five women for UVA had commanding wins of their own, with none of them dropping a single set. Emma Navarro, who was named ACC Freshman of the week for her fourth time last week, had another impressive showing. After winning 6-1, 6-3, Navarro improved to a perfect 10-0 on the season at the No. 1 singles position. Senior Rosie Johanson and Junior Sofia Munera also continued their hot-streaks with singles wins of their own. Johanson’s 6-1, 6-0 and Munera’s 6-4, 6-1 wins both marked their fifth-straight singles win.
The extraordinary day for the Cavaliers improved their all-time record against Virginia Tech to 41-5. It has now been a remarkable 24 years since the last time the Hokies were able to out-duel the current No. 14 team in the country. Virginia Tech will try to bounce back next week as they face off against Radford on Monday. UVA will try to take the momentum from this rivalry win into their matches next week against Clemson on Saturday, and a much-anticipated showdown against No. 13 Georgia Tech on Sunday.
