No. 13 Virginia advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2021 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship after winning 4-2 against No. 15 Tennessee in a second-round match on Saturday at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar’s Head Resort.
Virginia (16-6) won the doubles point and picked up singles victories on courts one, two and four. Freshman Hibah Shaikh (Fairfax, Va.) clinched the victory for the Cavaliers.
The 14-seed Cavaliers will face 3-seed Georgia on Sunday, May 16 at 10 a.m. the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., in the Round of 16.
Freshman Emma Navarro and senior Rosie Johanson opened the match with a 6-0 win on the top doubles court. Tennessee evened things with a victory on court two, but senior Vivian Glozman and Shaikh won 6-2 on court three to clinch the point.
In singles, sophomore Natasha Subhash won 6-1, 6-2 against Eleonora Molinaro on court two to give UVA a 2-0 advantage, but the Lady Vols quickly answered with a straight-set win on court three to make it 2-1. On court one, Navarro had won her first set 6-1 against Rebeka Mertena, but fell behind 5-3 in the second set. She rallied to win four straight games and took the set 7-5 to put the Cavaliers on the brink. Tennessee’s Johanna Silva battled to a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court six to make it 3-2.
On court four, Shaikh picked up a late break to win her first set 7-5 against Daria Kuczer. She took the second set 6-1 to seal the victory for the Cavaliers.
This is UVA’s seventh time advancing to the Round of 16 and its first since 2016.
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Chris Graham
