Women’s tennis wins A-10 championship

Zachary Holden
Staff Writer

Closing the regular season with nine straight wins, success in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament was expected of the VCU women’s tennis team.

Success is what they got.

Sweeping aside their opposition with ease in all four matches; women’s tennis became the first VCU team to achieve A-10 title glory.

The conference tournament started Thursday at Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va. with top-seeded VCU matched against La Salle. Perfect 8-0 doubles victories from Olga Barscheuskaya/Yukako Noi and Olga Terteac/Karyna Alesha got the Rams off to a quick 1-0 lead on the day.

Freshmen Barscheuskaya and Alesha got the singles matches started with a pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins that extended VCU’s lead to 3-0 on the day. Terteac sealed the deal with yet another perfect 6-0, 6-0 win to give the Rams a quick 4-0 win.

Friday saw VCU matched up with Temple in the quarterfinals. A pair of early doubles wins gave VCU a 1-0 lead. One-sided victories from Barscheuskaya, Terteac and Alesha meant the Rams cruised into the semifinals with ease.

Next up was cross-town rivals Richmond for a spot in the finals. Again, an early pair of doubles wins gave VCU a 1-0 lead heading into the singles matches. This time, Salome Kvitashvili and Noi joined Terteac in the straight sets wins to give the Rams another perfect 4-0 win and booked them a ticket to the A-10 finals against Xavier.

Sunday would determine if VCU could capture their first A-10 tournament title of the season after men’s and women’s soccer, along with basketball, made it to the championship game but could not lift the trophy.

The doubles teams of Terteac/Kvitashvili and Barscheuskaya/Noi won 8-2 and 8-4 respectively to give VCU a familiar 1-0 lead. Senior Josefin Hjertquist earned VCU’s second point of the day with a 6-3, 6-2 win. She was followed by a pair of wins by Terteac and Noi to take home the trophy.

Failing to drop a single point all weekend long, the women hoisted the conference tournament trophy. It was the third time in four years women’s tennis won a conference championship.

The quartet of victories brought their winning streak to 13 straight heading into the NCAA Tournament, which will have regional locations and dates announced on May 5.