Melodie Collard had been sick leading up to the University of Virginia women’s tennis match against Stanford at the end of March. She missed a string of matches, so her doubles partner, Elaine Chervinsky, paired up with teammates Isabelle Lacy and Meggie Navarro. When it was finally time to get back on the court together, Collard and Chervinsky were feeling the nerves. But the women, who won the first National Collegiate Athletic Association doubles championship in program history last November, didn’t need to worry.
“It felt immediately normal practicing with her again,” Chervinsky says. “We just fall right back into where we left off. We’re completely in sync pretty much literally all the time.”
That synchronicity was obvious during the match, Chervinsky says. At one point, the two UVA players were in their regular formation, with Collard at the net, when the Stanford women started lobbing high shots to the far end of the court. Chervinsky saw an opening to hit a winner, but Collard’s head was in the way. Collard had to duck, but not too early, because it would alert her opponents. At just the right moment, Chervinsky told Collard, in a calm, even tone, to move, and when she did, Chervinsky won the point with a powerful smash that the other side had no hope of returning.
“It was such a clean winner. And that point just shows how in sync we are, how much trust is involved in doubles,” Chervinsky says. “To know that I know that she knows to duck when I say it, that she’s paying attention to what I’m saying, and that she will hear me and she will duck.”
In mid-April, the Virginia women will head to the Atlantic Coast Conference championships. The Cavs, however, have no intention of stopping there. They hope to compete in the national team championships in May, an accomplishment that would cap off an already terrific season, and bookend their performance at the NCAA individual championships last fall.
The last time the Cavalier women won a conference team championship was in 2015. As of March 25, UVA was ranked No. 5 nationally—a slight drop from first and second, where it’s hovered for most of the semester.
Last spring, the Virginia women’s tennis team made it to the quarter finals in the 2024 team NCAA championships. The year before, to the third round, but just a year before that? They didn’t even compete in nationals.
This jump to the top of the rankings is in part thanks to fourth-years Chervinsky and Collard, roommates-turned-doubles-partners who’ve played together since their first year at Virginia. Now, Chervinsky and Collard sit at No. 1 in the nation—at this time last year, they were 14th.
They play in harmony, they say, each one mirroring the other.
“Melodie’s very crafty and is always so energetic at the net,” Chervinsky says. “Versus me—my identity is more like I hit a really good serve and I try to set her up from the baseline and that’s what our best positions are on the court.”
Match after match, they’ve nailed down their style—a style which Chervinsky says is predictable. They only have a handful of go-to plays, something that clearly works.
“For me, [winning the national championship] felt a little bit unreal because we were treating every match like a dual match,” Chervinsky says. “And so when I was going into the final, personally, it felt like a final, but it really didn’t because I didn’t understand the magnitude of it.”
Every point counts
The point system for college tennis is somewhat confusing. In doubles, the team that wins two of the three matches gets only one point, while in singles, the winner of each match earns a point. UVA women’s tennis Head Coach Sara O’Leary says Virginia’s intentional emphasis on doubles is key to the team’s success. “Even though it’s only worth one point in dual matches, we believe it’s a big part of the match,” she says. “You go into the six singles points with that one-point lead, it makes a big difference.”
Chervinsky and Collard’s national ranking in doubles doesn’t necessarily impact the overall team ranking, but Chervinsky says their performance is proof that the program is making the right choices.
O’Leary describes the current season as exciting, with matches coming down to the wire and different teammates stepping up to the plate. “It’s been really fun to watch the girls just take on that moment and embrace it and enjoy it,” she says.
Photo: Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics Communications
But O’Leary doesn’t deny there have been plenty of challenges. She says she’s seen more injuries and illnesses this year than in possibly her entire career. Fortunately, the team is nimble.
“The thing about this team is we’re really deep. We have 10 players that all can step up and play any day,” O’Leary explains. “That gives us the opportunity—when we have had injuries, we have had illnesses—where we just rest and we have other players that can step up and play.”
Sara Ziodato, who suffered a stress fracture at Baylor University her freshman year before transferring to UVA in 2021, agrees. “The nice part of being on the team is if someone is, for example, at 20 percent, then someone else will raise the tide and show up for the person that needs help in that moment,” she says.
“Raise the tide” is a phrase used by multiple Cavalier tennis players. It means helping others through difficult days, lifting up fellow teammates when they’re not at their best, and pushing each other to be better, Ziodato says. “You raise the tide so that other people will join you going up and up with your goals.”
When Collard was sick, she missed matches against Southern Methodist, Wake Forest, and North Carolina State, and Chervinsky played doubles with Lacy and Navarro (the sister of UVA alum Emma Navarro, who won the NCAA singles championship in 2021 and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open as a professional in 2024).
“A lot of doubles is not just the hitting, it’s also the presence of the person at the net—to make yourself a giant at the net to make the court feel small for the opponents,” Chervinsky says. “And [Navarro] just did amazing at that, and she just brings amazing energy wherever she is.”
Making the dream work
Teamwork and team culture is important to these players. Collard says that this season’s team is closer than ever. Chervinsky describes the culture as “good vibes”—interpersonal harmony and teamwork on the court have taken the tennis players far this season.
“We really spend a lot of time together and we have a great chemistry. So I think that is really a big difference between the years that I was here before,” Collard says. “Not that we didn’t have good chemistry before, but I feel like this year I genuinely think that every girl loves each other, so I think it really makes a difference.”
O’Leary identifies the team’s synchronicity on a more individual level as well. She describes the Chervinsky-Collard duo as complementing one another, “bringing different strengths to the table,” as she puts it.
“[Chervinsky is] great from the baseline, can take the ball really early, keep the ball low, and [Collard] is probably the best player in the country up at the net. She’s just so active. She reads the plays really well. She’s a great athlete,” O’Leary says. “And on top of that, they’re really, really close friends.”
Chervinsky and Collard aren’t the only ones seeing success this season. Ziodato, who by the end of last semester was ranked in the top 25 nationally and seventh in the conference, is also making strides.
This success has been building over this season and previous ones. After overcoming several injuries and illnesses, banding together as a team, and progressing inch by inch, the Cavs are seeing the payoff this year, and laying the groundwork for even more wins.
As of March 18, two of the top 25 singles players in the nation, as well as the No. 6- and 7-ranked players in the ACC, are Cavaliers. This time last year, only one UVA player was ranked in the top 25 nationally, and just one in the top 15 in the conference.
Photo: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics Communications
Building on
The team’s momentum is building—to the upcoming ACC tournament, the NCAA championships, and beyond. Chervinsky, Collard, and Ziodato all tout the team’s growing strength and performance over the past few years and, especially, this season.
“That’s what this program is all about, is building long-term and now we’re starting to see those results as far as No. 1 rankings and things like that,” Chervinsky says. “But at the end of the day, we’re not a team that necessarily focuses on that. It’s hard to stay up there, and that’s what we’re trying to build for the next team. For example, when I leave, that’s what I want to leave to the next team is to continue to build.”
Part of the team’s vision for its future includes the leadership of older players. Of the 10 players, six are upperclassmen, giving multiple women the opportunity to take on a leadership role. Chervinsky says she likes to be there for her teammates on and off the court. She tries to be someone on the team who people can approach, she says, if they need some wisdom or advice, whether that’s related to tennis or schoolwork.
The team’s veterans have not only been able to give, but they’ve also reaped many benefits as well.
Ziodato, who’s playing her fifth year of college tennis as a graduate student, looks back on her time at UVA fondly, reflecting on how her teammates have helped her succeed. “Knowing that I’m playing for someone and a community that I care so much about has pushed me to reach levels that I wouldn’t have thought that I could have reached,” she says. “Not just optimistically but also mentally. And that is something that I will always look back at and be proud of my time here.”
With only three matches remaining before the postseason, O’Leary hopes to fine-tune her team and let the players rest.
It’s not a given that the Cavalier women will make it into the NCAA team championships in May. First, they have to do well in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in North Carolina, where they’ll compete against the University of North Carolina (currently ranked No. 4 in the country), Duke (No. 9), and NC State (No. 11). Still, Chervinsky is hopeful.
“I think we’re on a great path. I think we’re working really hard every day focusing on the little things,” she says. “And if we can continue to do that, I think we will end up at the final site. But it’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of consistency.”
“And as coach [O’Leary] continues to say: We got to raise the tide.”
Featured Image: Melodie Collard (pictured) and Elaine Chervinsky currently sit at No. 1 in the nation for doubles tennis teams. Photo: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics Communications
