NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion women’s tennis (6-3) overcame an early 0-2 deficit to defeat No. 61 Virginia Commonwealth 4-3 Sunday at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center for the first victory against the Rams since 2006.
“Toni, John, and I are proud of the effort we put forth today to get the job done,” said Manilla. “Borislava’s performance at No. 1 singles, earning a victory over No. 49 Cindy Chala was fantastic; I feel this match was a feather in her hat. Performances from our ever dependable sophomores, as well as Vukovic, gave us the opportunity to win the match after a poor performance in doubles.”
No. 61 VCU (7-6) started off by taking 2-of-3 doubles matches for an early lead. Adriana Rajkovic and Ivana Vukovic won the No. 3 match for the Lady Monarchs, a 6-2 decision over Ludivine Burguiere and Alzbeta Veverkova.
“We will work very hard on our doubles moving forward,” said head coach Dominic Manilla. “We need to clean that up to gain that momentum going into the singles.”
In No. 1 singles action, Borislava Botusharova earned a 6-1, 6-3 straight-set victory against VCU’s No. 49 nationally ranked Cindy Chala. The true freshman from Pazardzhik, Bulgaria improves to 8-1 in singles play this season.
At the No. 4 spot, Ingrid Vojcinakova defeated Burguiere in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Ingrid is now 7-2 on the season after picking up two victoires this weekend.
Marijana Novakovic, at No. 5 singles, bested VCU’s Darya Berezhnaya 6-2, 7-5 and has now won eight of her first nine matches.
After VCU took the No. 2 singles match to pull even 3-3, all eyes turned to court six for the final match between Vukovic and Veverkova. ODU’s junior from Osijek, Croatia took the opening set 6-4, but was tested in the following set. Veverkova fought back to tie the set at 6-6, but Vukovic held on to win 7-6(8) and earn the victory for the Lady Monarchs.
SCOREBOARD
Doubles (order of finish: 3,1,2)
No. 1 – Salome Kvitashvili/Olga Barscheuskaya (VCU) def. Borislava Botusharova/Nikol Hristova (ODU) 6-1
No. 2 – Cindy Chala/Darya Berezhnaya (VCU) def. Marijana Novakovic/Ingrid Vojcinakova (ODU) 6-4
No. 3 – Adriana Rajkovic/Ivana Vukovic (ODU) def. Ludivine Burguiere/Alzbeta Veverkova (VCU) 6-2
Singles (order of finish: 3,1,4,5,2,6)
No. 1 – Borislava Botusharova (ODU) def. No. 49 Cindy Chala (VCU) 6-1, 6-3
No. 2 – Salome Kvitashvili (VCU) def. Nikol Hristova (ODU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 – Olga Barscheuskaya (VCU) def. Adriana Rajkovic (ODU) 6-0, 6-1
No. 4 – Ingrid Vojcinakova (ODU) def. Ludivine Burguiere (VCU) 6-2, 6-3
No. 5 – Marijana Novakovic (ODU) def. Darya Berezhnaya (VCU) 6-2, 7-5
No. 6 – Ivana Vukovic (ODU) def. Alzbeta Veverkova (VCU) 6-4, 7-6(8)
NEXT UP FOR THE LADY MONARCHS
Old Dominion heads to College Park, Md. for a 2 p.m. ET match against Maryland on Friday (March 6) and a 12 p.m. ET match against UMBC on Saturday (March 7).
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