No. 47 Virginia Stalls Bulldog Comeback at Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic
No. 34 Yale to Play No. 40 Ohio State for Third Place
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Yale women's tennis team made a valiant effort to mount a second comeback win in as many days on Saturday at the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic, but ultimately came up short against a resilient Cavalier squad. Playing at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center, No. 47 Virginia (5-6, 1-0 ACC) narrowly edged out No. 34 Yale (9-2, 0-0 Ivy) in the battle for the doubles point before fending off a strong effort by the No. 1 seeded Bulldogs in singles play.
Just as in Yale's first-round match against Pepperdine, the doubles point came down to a tense tiebreaker. This time, however, the deciding match was at No. 3 doubles, after Yale's No. 2 duo of freshman Madeleine Hamilton and sophomore Amber Li evened the score by defeating Virginia's No. 2 tandem of Maria Fuccillo and Hana Tomljanovic 8-6. At No. 3 doubles, the Bulldog pairing of freshman Courtney Amos and sophomore Hanna Yu took part in a high-quality clash, but fell short in the tiebreaker against the Cavalier team of Julia Elbaba and Li Xi.
The Bulldogs did not let their disadvantage going into singles deter their resolve, as they nearly made a heroic fight-back to complement the one they made a day ago against Pepperdine. It was not to be, however, as Virginia picked up the requisite trio of wins in singles. In upsetting Yale, Virginia's Erin Vierra had to do what no other player had been able to do all season: defeat Li. Vierra did so, at No. 5 singles, to seal the Cavaliers' win and secure their advancement to the final round of the tournament, where they will take on No. 50 Tulane. At No. 3 singles, junior Annie Sullivan, whose heroics against Pepperdine put Yale in the semifinals, remained undefeated with a straightforward 6-2, 6-3 victory over Tomljanovic. In what was perhaps Yale's biggest success of the day, senior captain Elizabeth Epstein, ranked No. 99 in the nation, upset No. 13 Elbaba 7-5, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
Despite the defeat, Yale will still have a chance to bring a winning record out of this event, as the squad will challenge No. 40 Ohio State (8-5, 1-1 Big Ten) for a third place finish at the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic. The match is set to take place at 11:30 a.m. CDT (12:30 p.m. EDT) on Sunday at the O'Connor Tennis Center.
The website for the 2013 Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic can be found here. Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament here.
Report by Robert Batista '15, Yale Sports Publicity
Be the first to know what's going on with the Bulldogs -- Follow @YaleAthletics on Twitter, become a fan of Yale Athletics on Facebook!
| Position | University of Virginia | Yale University | Winner | Score |
| #1 Singles | #71 Stephanie Nauta | Madeleine Hamilton | University of Virginia | 6-1, 6-1 |
| #2 Singles | #13 Julia Elbaba | #99 Elizabeth Epstein | Yale University | 7-5, 6-3 |
| #3 Singles | Hana Tomljanovic | Annie Sullivan | Yale University | 6-2, 6-2 |
| #4 Singles | Li Xi | Hanna Yu | Yale University | 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 |
| #5 Singles | Erin Vierra | Amber Li | University of Virginia | 7-6, 6-4 |
| #6 Singles | Caryssa Peretz | Courtney Amos | University of Virginia | 6-4, 6-2 |
| #1 Doubles | Stephanie Nauta Erin Vierra |
Elizabeth Epstein Annie Sullivan |
University of Virginia | 8-3 |
| #2 Doubles | Hana Tomljanovic Maria Fuccillo |
Amber Li Madeleine Hamilton |
Yale University | 8-6 |
| #3 Doubles | Julia Elbaba Li Xi |
Courtney Amos Hanna Yu |
University of Virginia | 9-8 |
