Cavaliers Now

No. 9 UVA Women's Tennis Downs No. 16 Stanford 4-3, Earns Bid to ITA Indoor Championships

Emma Navarro clinched the win for the Cavaliers in an epic four-hour match against the Cardinal

Matt Newton

It took a hard-fought marathon match that lasted over four hours, but the UVA women's tennis team secured its first bid to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships since 2016. 

In the championship match of ITA Kickoff Weekend, No. 9 Virginia and No. 16 Stanford clashed at Boar's Head Sports Club on Saturday with a spot in the 16-team ITA Indoors tournament hanging in the balance. 

It was a rough start to the match for the Cavaliers, as the doubles team of Sofia Munera and Hibah Shaikh fell to Stanford's Ana Geller and Niluka Madurawe, 7-5. Elaine Chervinsky and Natasha Subhash won their doubles match 7-5 to even the doubles score at 1-1, but Emma Navarro and Amber O'Dell were narrowly defeated via tiebreaker, 7-6 (8-6), and Stanford claimed the doubles point. 

Amber O'Dell was edged by Valencia Xu, 6-3, 6-2 and the Cardinal went up 2-0 in the match. UVA finally got on the board as Sofia Munera defeated Ana Geller in three sets 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. The Cavaliers evened the match on Natasha Subhash's 7-6, 6-1 win over Angelica Blake and the Hoos claimed a 3-2 lead as Elaine Chervinsky took down Alexandra Yepifanova 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. Then, Sara Ziodato fell to Sara Choy in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to bring the score of the match to a 3-3 tie, leaving it up to the top court singles match between the defending NCAA singles champion Emma Navarro and the No. 9 ranked women's singles player, Connie Ma, to decide the match. 

When Ziodato and Choy's match ended, Navarro and Ma had just begun their third set, which was tied at one game apiece. Navarro picked up a crucial break of Ma's serve in the 9th game of the set to take a 5-4 lead, then held serve to close out the match, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 and clinched the victory for Virginia. 

With the win, Virginia improves to 5-0 on the season and the Cavaliers will be headed to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which will take place February 11-14 in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Up next, Virginia will host UCF on Friday, February 4th in the team's last action before the ITA National Team Indoor Championships begin on February 11th. 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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