Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
Virginia Women's Tennis Falls to No. 4 Texas in NCAA Quarterfinals
Virginia's run at the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship has come to an end. No. 5 UVA women's tennis fell to No. 4 Texas 4-2 in the NCAA quarterfinals on Friday at the Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign, Illinois.
In Virginia's third-ever appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals and first trip to the Elite Eight under head coach Sara O'Leary, the Cavaliers were matched up against the defending national champion Texas Longhorns.
Emma Navarro and Hibah Shaikh opened doubles play by downing the No. 11-ranked pairing of Peyton Stearns and Allura Zamarripa 6-2. Texas pulled even with a 6-3 victory by Sabina Zeynalova and Bella Zamarripa over Sofia Munera and Amber O'Dell. The Longhorns captured the doubles point on court 2 as Charlotte Chavatipon and Kylie Collins defeated Elaine Chervinsky and Natasha Subhash 6-3.
UVA answered back by winning the first two matches in singles play on the top two courts. In a highly-anticipated matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in next week's NCAA Singles Championship, No. 1 Emma Navarro dominated No. 2 Peyton Stearns 6-1, 6-0.
On court 2, No. 44 Natasha Subhash outplayed No. 49 Kylie Collins 6-2, 6-0 to put the Cavaliers in front in the match 2-1.
Texas bounced back as Charlotte Chavatipon defeated Sofia Munera 6-4, 6-1 on court 4 to pull back even. On court 3, Sabina Zeynalova took down Elaine Chervinsky 6-4, 7-5 to put the Longhorns back in front.
Finally, Hibah Shaikh fell to Allura Zamarripa 7-5, 6-4 on court 5 to end the match.
Virginia concludes its team season with a 23-6 record. The Cavaliers will now compete in the NCAA Women's Singles and Doubles Championships next week in Champaign, Illinois. Emma Navarro, the defending NCAA singles champion, is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. Natasha Subhash will also compete in the field and Elaine Chervinsky is an alternate. Navarro and Hibah Shaikh will compete in the doubles tournament as the No. 3 seed.
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