The Virginia women's tennis team has one goal in mind as it enters the ACC Tournament: to prove it should be selected for the NCAA Tournament. After dropping their last four matches, the No. 53 Cavaliers need to rebound and win their first-round match against No. 58 Virginia Tech to better their chances for the NCAA Tournament.
"I think it's pretty clear that if we win against Virginia Tech on Thursday we're in the NCAA Tournament," Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau said. "If we don't win, we're not. Having been a coach for about 17 years and fortunate enough to make the NCAAs every year, it's definitely a goal."
No. 7 seed Virginia (9-12, 5-6 ACC) defeated No. 10 seed Tech (14-12, 2-9 ACC) 4-3 earlier in the season; however, because the previous match opened the ACC seasonfor the two teams, both have had time to improve significantly and to move up in the national rankings. Tech freshman Yasmin Hamza has been recognized for her improvements, briefly breaking into the national rankings at the beginning of April.
The Hokies' ACC record also may not correctly portray their abilities because three of their conference losses were by just one point. The Hokies have dropped their last five matches and also will be looking for a strong performance to extend their season.
"Anytime you play in the ACC Tournament it's always really exciting because it's one of the few times when you get to kind of measure yourself against your previous results," Guilbeau said. "This is a specific example of a very close match earlier in the year, and I think they've improved. I know we have, so it's going to be a matter of comparing those two levels of improvement."
One of the most important points of the match could be the doubles point, which gives a team momentum into the singles matches and was a deciding factor in the previous match against Tech. Virginia has shown improvement in doubles play this season; senior Lindsey Pereira and junior Maggie Yahner defeated two top-5 doubles pairs this past weekend. Sophomore Jennifer Stevens has been paired with both junior Hampton Williams or junior Amanda Rales on her way to compiling a winning doubles record. Stevens and Rales also came close to winning both of their doubles matches this past weekend and lost in a tiebreaker to the No. 51 doubles pair from North Carolina.
"I think doubles is going to be huge," Guilbeau said. "I think any smart coach is preparing their team well enough to win the match even if you don't get the doubles, but it's going to be a big point. I think we're potentially favored on two of the courts, and we just have got to play up to our level."
The Cavaliers have also demonstrated progress in singles play. Stevens lost to Tech's Hamza earlier in the season but has since defeated two top-30 players. Pereira also lost her Tech match and had dropped the previous three matches. Pereira then went on, however, to win six consecutive matches and has won nine of the last 16.
"We're going into [the ACC Tournament] with our heads up, knowing that, even though we're on this bad stretch of losses," Pereira said. "Regardless of the losses or the scores, we've been moving forward. I think we're in a good place to walk in there with the ability to really show them that it won't be our last match. We will have more to come after the first round."
The Cavaliers will head to Altamonte Springs, Fla. to face Tech at 12 p.m. Thursday. The winner will play No. 9 Duke (16-3, 9-2 ACC) Friday.
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