The Virginia women's tennis team appeared to be on the verge of pulling off a huge upset for their biggest win of the season Sunday afternoon at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar's Head Sports Club. Its upset bid, however, fell short at the end, as the No. 53 Cavaliers lost 4-3 to No. 23 Tennessee.
The two teams were tied 3-3 at the end of the first six matches, and the only court still in play was the No. 2 singles match where Virginia sophomore Jennifer Stevens appeared to be in control. Stevens had already won the first set against Tennessee's senior Ghizela Schutte in a tiebreaker and, at one point, she held a 3-0 lead in the second set; however, Stevens soon developed leg cramps. She battled through the cramps for the rest of the match but was not able to overcome them, as Schutte took the second and third sets 6-4 and 6-3 respectively, giving the Lady Volunteers (6-2) the win and snapping Virginia's four-match winning streak.
The loss is a tough one for the players and coaches because they see it as a lost opportunity; however, the team is trying to focus on the positives that can be taken out of the match.
"You hurt a little bit, and I know that the players are hurting big time and I feel for them," Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau said. "But, ultimately you get back to the reality of where was our level, and our level was pretty good. And, if we play like this, I think we have plenty of more good opportunities ahead. It's a shame to not get this one though; we really did have this match."
The Cavaliers (5-4) started strong in doubles, as senior Lindsey Pereira and junior Maggie Yahner won their match8-4 at the No. 2 position. In the other two doubles' matches, Virginia juniors Amanda Rales and Lara Alexander lost at the No. 1 position, and Stevens and junior Hampton Williams fell at the No. 3 position, giving Tennessee the opening point and forcing Virginia to regroup its focus for the matches ahead.
"Personally, I had to take a couple of minutes to get out a little frustration about my doubles match, but I just kind of took my time and walked around," Rales said. "The doubles point is really important, but since we lost it, it made re-focusing that much more important."
In singles, Pereira got the Cavaliers on the board when she continued her dominance from doubles in singles, quickly disposing of her opponent, junior Samantha Orlin, in straight sets while letting her win only two games.
"I was glad that I was able to kind of do my part and help the team like, 'Let's go, pick it up, come on,'" Pereira said of her singles win. "I wanted to make sure that the team was pretty aware that yeah, we are totally in this."
Following Pereira's win, Rales and Yahner both beat ranked opponents in straight sets at the No. 1 and No. 4 positions respectively. Rales upset No. 66 sophomore Caitlin Whoriskey and Yahner defeated No. 90 sophomore Zsófia Zubor. Alexander and junior Cathy Nimitz fell at the No. 5 position and No. 6 position, respectively, leaving Stevens' match to decide the overall outcome.
Although the Tennessee match was the most dramatic part of the weekend for the Cavaliers, the team also defeated Old Dominion (6-4) at Boar's Head Friday afternoon. The Cavaliers won two of the three doubles matches to take the first point, and in singles, Virginia pulled out four of the six matches, including two three-set victories by Rales and Yahner at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.
Rales said although the team feels disappointed it was not able to come away with the win Sunday, the Cavaliers recognize their achievements this weekend.
"I definitely think it was a really positive weekend," Rales said. "We definitely took care of business against ODU ... Everybody was very accountable on their courts and kind of just finished things off. And then, this is huge -- to be 4-3 with a tough team like [Tennessee] is really positive"
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