Virginia's Run at ACC Women's Tennis Championship Ends in 4-1 Defeat to Duke

Virginia's path the final match of the ACC Women's Tennis Championship took the Cavaliers through a gauntlet of strong Tobacco Road women's tennis programs. UVA took down No. 5 seed NC State in the quarterfinals and then stunned the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels in the semifinals on Saturday. Making their first appearance in the final of the ACC Championship since 2015, the Cavaliers came up just short and fell to No. 2 seed Duke 4-1 on Sunday in Rome, Georgia.

Virginia got off to a great start in doubles play as Natasha Subhash and Sofia Munera pulled a 6-1 upset victory over the No. 27-ranked doubles team of Chloe Beck and Ellie Coleman. The Blue Devils answered back with a 6-2 win by Eliza Omirou and Margaryta Bilokin over Elaine Chervinsky and Amber O'Dell. On court 1, Virginia's team of Emma Navarro and Hibah Shaikh, ranked the No. 8 doubles duo in the country, lost a close 7-6 tiebreaker to No. 31 Georgia Drummy and Karolina Berankova and Duke clinched the doubles point.

Drummy, the No. 14-ranked singles player, scored the Blue Devils' next point to start singles play with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 41 Natasha Subhash.

The No. 1 ranked women's tennis player in the nation, Emma Navarro, picked up Virginia's lone point of the day with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 8 Chloe Beck on court 1.

UVA's Sara Ziodato was competitive in both sets against Duke's Ellie Coleman, but Coleman prevailed in both for a 6-4, 7-6 victory to move the Blue Devils one point away from clinching the championship.

On court 3, Virginia's Elaine Chervinsky rallied after losing the first set to Emma Jackson. Chervinsky won the second set 6-3 and had multiple match points in the third set, but Jackson was able to push the deciding set to a tiebreaker. Jackson jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the tiebreaker. Chervinsky admirably defended three match points, but Jackson eventually sealed the deal and clinched the ACC title for Duke.

“Congratulations to Duke," said UVA head coach Sara O'Leary. "I thought they competed really well. I’m super proud of our squad. We beat the No. 3 (NC State) and No. 1 (North Carolina) teams in the country this weekend. This team can play with anyone and they are really believing that. We will learn from today and prepare for NCAA’s in two weeks.”

Virginia will now await selection to the NCAA Team Championship, which is set to begin on May 7th. Selections will be announced on May 2nd.

Read more from Cavaliers Now