Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
No. 9 UVA Women's Tennis Opens Season With Wins Over Richmond and JMU
The No. 9 Virginia women's tennis team opened the 2023 season with a pair of strong victories over Richmond and James Madison on Friday afternoon at Boar's Head Sports Club. The Cavaliers swept the Spiders 7-0 and defeated the Dukes 6-1 in the Friday doubleheader.
Friday's matches marked the UVA debuts for three newcomers: Furman graduate transfer Julia Adams (Knoxville Tennessee), freshman Annabelle Xu (Montreal, Canada), and freshman Meggie Navarro (Charleston, South Carolina), the younger sister of former UVA standout and 2021 NCAA Singles Champion Emma Navarro, who turned pro after the 2022 season.
Sophomore Melodie Collard teamed up with Julia Adams on court 1 and picked up a 6-1 win to kick off doubles competition in UVA's season-opener against Richmond. On court 3, Elaine Chervinsky and Sara Ziodato defeated Richmond's Lara Bakhaya and Elizabeth Novak to clinch the doubles point for Virginia. The court 2 match between UVA's Natasha Subhash/Annabelle Xu and Richmond's Andrea Campodonico/Marta Buendia went unfinished with Subhash and Xu leading 4-1.
Ziodato picked up a 6-2, 6-1 win over Carly Cohen on court 2 and Julia Adams, who is ranked as the No. 34 women's singles player, defeated Leonor Oliveira 6-4, 6-3 on the top court to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cavaliers. The freshman Annabelle Xu clinched the victory for Virginia with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Campodonico on court 3.
Hibah Shaikh won 6-4, 6-1 on court 4 and Nicole Kiefer earned a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court 6. Meggie Navarro put the finishing touches on a 7-0 sweep for Virginia with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 victory in her collegiate debut.
In the second half of the doubleheader, Julia Adams and Melodie Collard again got the Cavaliers started with a 6-3 win and then Natasha Subhash and Annabelle Xu won 6-4 on court 2 to clinch the doubles point. Elaine Chervinsky and Sara Ziodato made it a clean sweep in doubles play with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-2) win on court 3.
Natasha Subhash dominated her singles match against Daria Afanasyeva, winning 6-0, 6-0 on court 2. Annabelle Xu also picked up a strong 6-2, 6-0 victory over Daria Munteanu on court 5. Hibah Shaikh clinched the match for Virginia with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Reka Matko on court 6.
Julia Adams defeated Kylie Moulin 7-5, 6-4 on the top court, but JMU got on the board with a 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-5) upset win by Ines Oliveira over UVA's Elaine Chervinsky. Sara Ziodato wrapped up the match with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Daniele Voloh on court 4.
Virginia will host the ITA Kickoff Weekend next weekend, as Washington State, Ole Miss, and Princeton compete with UVA for an invitation to the ITA National Team Championships. UVA faces Washington State on Friday at 3pm at Boar's Head. The championship match will be on Saturday at 3:30pm.
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