No. 7 UVA Women's Tennis Beats No. 13 Florida 4-2 at ITA National Team Indoor Championships

The Cavaliers defeated the Gators to advance to the ITA quarterfinals

No. 7 Virginia women's tennis and No. 13 Florida clashed in the first round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. As expected in a matchup between two top-15 teams with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line, it was a hard-fought battle with closely-contested and competitive matches across the board.

Ultimately, the Cavaliers overcame an early deficit and defeated the Gators 4-2 to advance to Saturday's quarterfinals. 

Amber O'Dell and Emma Navarro opened the match with a near-perfect 6-1 victory over the No. 6-ranked doubles pairing of Carly Briggs and Marlee Zein. The other two doubles matches did not go as well for the Cavaliers. 

Both matches went to a tiebreaker, with Florida claiming victory in both. McCartney Kessler and Emma Shelton defeated Hibah Shaikh and Sofia Munera 7-6 (7-3), while No. 27 Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee took down Elaine Chervinsky and Natasha Subhash, 7-6 (10-8) and the Gators captured the doubles point. 

The Cavaliers quickly pulled back even with the Gators as Sofia Munera defeated No. 84 Emma Shelton 6-1, 6-3 in the only singles match that was not closely contested. 

UVA went ahead 2-1 with Hibah Shaikh's 6-4, 7-5 win over Sydney Berlin, but Florida answered back with a three-set victory by No. 61 Marlee Zein over No. 28 Natasha Subhash, 6-3, 0-6, 6-2. 

After dropping the first set, Sara Ziodato rallied to take down Carly Briggs 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to put Virginia up 3-2. Needing just one more win to clinch the victory for the Cavaliers, No. 45 Emma Navarro got the job done with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over McCartney Kessler on court #1. 

Play was suspended immediately after Navarro's win, leaving Virginia's Elaine Chervinsky just one point away from clinching her match against Alicia Dudeney. Chervinsky lost the first set 2-6, but won the second 6-4, and was leading 5-3 in the third with two break point opportunities to seal the match when play was suspended. 

The Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinals and will face No. 2-seed North Carolina on Saturday at 10am ET. The Tar Heels are looking to win their third-consecutive ITA National Team Indoor title, while UVA is looking to capture its first. 

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