Seniors Jennifer Tuchband and Henriette Williams finished their home careers in style this weekend, leading Virginia (14-8, 4-4 ACC) to two crucial ACC wins over Wake Forest and N.C. State. With seedings at this weekend's conference tournament at stake, Tuchband and Williams combined for two doubles victories and three singles victories to better the Cavaliers' final position in the ACC standings.
On a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon, Virginia defeated the Wolfpack, 5-2, thanks to the play of their seniors. At No. 1 doubles, Tuchband and Williams knocked off N.C. State's duo of Kristen Lam and Loni Worsley, 8-3. Virginia also took the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, claiming the early point to take a 1-0 lead.
"I thought we played near-perfect doubles," coach Phil Rogers said.
Williams would later repeat her dominance of Lam, beating her 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Tuchband similarly dismissed her opponent, Wolfpack freshman Virginia Romero, 6-1, 6-0.
"Well, it was our last home match, and I wanted to go out on a good note," Tuchband said.
Williams echoed her classmate's sentiment about their finish.
"Obviously, since the team won both of them, it's such a good end," she said. "We'd never beaten Wake Forest since I've been here."
Freshman Lori Stern and sophomore Dora Bechliwanis rounded out Virginia's singles victories with Bechliwanis winning a third-set tiebreaker and Stern polishing off her opponent in convincing fashion, 6-0, 6-2.
Saturday's victory over Wake Forest was the first in recent memory for Virginia over the Demon Deacons. Strong singles play bolstered the Cavaliers after losing the doubles point.
Saturday "may have been our best singles performance of the year," Rogers said. "We've got the whole team really believing in themselves and playing at the top of their game. I think we're reaching at potential at maybe the right time of the season."
Virginia took five of the six singles matches en route to victory, but the story of the day and of the weekend was the end of the Tuchband and Williams era.
"They're two of the best seniors I've ever had," Rogers said. "We talked about it [being the seniors' last home outing] before the match that this is the last home match, but we feel like we have a lot of good tennis ahead of us. We'd like to do well in the ACC tournament, and we'd like to do well in the NCAA tournament."
Though neither will be returning to the Synder Center to compete for the Cavaliers, both have a lot of tennis left to play. The ACC tournament kicks off Thursday, April 17 in Raleigh, N.C.
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