The UVA duo of Elaine Chervinsky and Mélodie Collard won the 2024-2025 NCAA Doubles Championship on Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
Chervinsky and Collard defeated UCLA’s all-freshman team of Olivia Center and Kate Fakih 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the final to win the first NCAA Doubles title in program history.
This is the first year that the NCAA individual tennis championships have been contested in the fall instead of after the team championship in the spring.
The Virginia duo won all five of their matches in the tournament in third-set 10-point super tiebreakers.
The UVA duo opened the 32-team draw with a 7-5, 2-6, 10-7 against No. 17 Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs of Washington. After logging a 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 against Georgia’s Guillermina Grant and Aysegul Mert, they defeated 5-8 seed Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby of UNC to advance to the semifinals.
In Saturday’s semifinals against Rachel Gailis and Alicia Dudeney of Florida, Chervinsky and Collard dropped the first set then battled back with a 6-3 win in the second set to force the tiebreaker. The Cavaliers fell behind 5-0 in the breaker before roaring back to take an 8-7 lead. Gailis and Dudeney tied it at eight-all before Chervinsky and Collard took the final two points to win the match and clinch a spot in the final.
In Sunday’s final, Collard and Chervinsky went down an early break in the first set, but broke back to go back on serve at 4-5, but then Center and Fakih broke back to take the first set 6-4. Chervinsky and Collard took the second set 6-3 to force the decider.
Virginia had the early momentum, going up 4-0 in the breaker, but UCLA won two points ahead of the changeover to make it 4-2. UCLA staved off one match point at 9-4, but double-faulted on the second match point, ending the match.
Collard and Chervinsky were ranked No. 3 in the preseason doubles rankings but were not seeded in the tournament. Center and Faikh were a 5-8 seed.
Collard and Chervinsky are the first UVA team to ever advance to the NCAA Doubles final. Collard advanced to the semifinals in 2023 with her partner Julia Adams. Chervinsky and Collard fell in the opening round in last season’s championship.
This is the fourth individual championship in program history alongside NCAA Singles titles from Danielle Collins (2014 and 2016) and Emma Navarro (2021).
It is the 88th individual NCAA title for UVA across all sports.
Chervinsky also made a deep run in the singles championship, advancing to the quarterfinals after stunning the tournament’s top seed, Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M, 6-3, 6-0, in the Round of 16. She also defeated 9-16 seed Alexis Blokhina of Stanford in the Round of 32.
With her quarterfinal finish, she will earn ITA Singles All-America honors at the end of the season.
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Chris Graham
