NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion women’s tennis double tandem Yulia Starodubtseva and Alesya Yakubovich won the 2019 ITA Atlantic Regional Doubles Tournament on Monday afternoon at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center in Blacksburg, Va.
For the second straight year, ODU’s Yulia Starodubtseva advanced to the title match of the ITA Atlantic Regional Doubles Tournament.
In the Championship match, Starodubtseva/Yakubovich took on No. 5 seeded Amber O’Dell/Sofia Munera from UVA, in a match Starodubtseva/Yakubovich won in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
With the victory, Starodubtseva/Yakubovich earn an automatic bid to the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, Cali. held on Nov. 6-10.
Starodubtseva and Yakubovich downed three straight seeded tandems to advance to the Championship match. In the Quarterfinals, Starodubtseva/Yakubovich took down No. 1 seed and No. 15 nationally ranked Rita Pinto/Natalie Novotna of Virginia Tech by an 8-2 score. In the Semifinal match, ODU’s tandem proved to be too much for UVA’s No. 4 seeded Natasha Subhash and Rosie Johanson (6-2, 6-2).
ODU accounted for half of the Doubles Semifinals at the Regional Tournament, as Shahar Biran and Alexandra Viktorovich also were one of the last four tandems to survive. Biran/Viktorovich defeated No. 3 seed/No. 52 nationally ranked Chloe Gullickson and Vivian Glozman of UVA in the Quarterfinals by an 8-7(4) score. Biran/Viktorovich later fell to O’Dell/Munera in the Semifinals (6-2, 6-0).
Old Dominion’s No. 3 seeded/No. 48 nationally ranked Holly Hutchinson cruised to the Quarterfinals of the Singles Draw, winning her first three matches in straight sets, while only dropping five games in the process. In the Quarterfinals, Hutchinson fell to UVA’s No. 5 seed/No. 77 nationally ranked Amber O’Dell 5-7, 6-7(5).