The Virginia women's tennis team will travel to Cambridge, Mass. Saturday and Providence, R.I. Sunday to take on Harvard and Brown, respectively. These two matches will complete the team's eight consecutive road matches, which began with its opening match.
The Cavaliers (4-2) are looking to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss at Tennessee last weekend. Ranked 27th in the nation entering the match against No. 30 Tennessee, Virginia was narrowly defeated by the Volunteers, 4-3.
"We had a tough loss at Tennessee," junior Lindsey Pereira said. "It taught us to just take care of our own matches. We have to fight for ourselves and still realize we're part of a team. You have to be there 100 percent because the coaches can always take care of us in practice, but they can't take care of us on the court." Pereira is the only junior on the team, which carries just one senior as well. The Cavaliers are looking to overcome their youth and gain valuable experience before they enter ACC play, which begins March 9. Virginia wants to put itself in a position to compete for the ACC title once league play begins, and winning these two road games would certainly boost the team's confidence.
The Cavaliers will have their hands full as they have to contend with national powers No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 8 Miami and No. 12 Clemson for the ACC crown.
Brown (3-3) and Harvard (0-4) present two winnable matches for Virginia. The Cavaliers have been working hard in practice this week, realizing the importance of their last two road games before taking on Purdue at home on March 3. Serving and doubles play are two key areas that the team feels it needs to improve upon. Tennessee took two out of the three doubles matches -- which ended up deciding the match -- while singles play was split 3-3.
"We've had two losses really early in the season and they've inspired us to try harder and work harder" freshman Kristen McVitty said. "Everyone wants this really badly. I've never thought that losing was a bad thing. You learn the most from losses. You learn where you need to improve."
McVitty, a California native, battled through a tough, come-from-behind, three-set win at No. 2 singles after narrowly losing at No. 1 doubles in the Tennessee match. She highlights the nation's top-rated recruiting class brought in last year by Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau and looks to be one of the keys to the team's success this year.
Saturday will mark the second meeting between Harvard and Virginia this year, as the two teams competed in the Harvard Invitational last fall, a match won by the Crimson. The young Virginia team began the season with wins at Richmond, Marshall, Davidson and Middle Tennessee State and losses at William & Mary and Tennessee, while Harvard has lost to Kentucky, Boston, Southern Methodist and Baylor.
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