National

Virginia men, Stanford women

win NCAA team titles

Sally Milano  |  May 25, 2016
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The NCAA Team Championships played host two very familiar champions on Tuesday, with the top-seeded University of Virginia men's team capturing its second straight team title and its third in the last four years and the Stanford University women picking up their second title in four years – and 18th overall.

 

Virginia defeated No. 11 seed Oklahoma for the second straight year, 4-1, clinching the title when sophomore Henrik Wiersholm beat Andre Biro, 6-2, 7-6 (2), at No. 6 singles. Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and J.C. Aragone also posted singles wins for the Cavaliers, while the teams of Aragone-Collin Altamirano and Ryan Shane-Luca Corinteli earned the doubles point for Virginia.

 

"I am really pleased with our overall effort and couldn't be happier for this team," Virginia head coach Brian Boland said following his team's victory. ADVERTISEMENT "These guys hung in there all year long. We dealt with some adversity in terms of not winning the ACC tournament, which was different for us, as well as losing in the final of the National Indoors, so I was really pleased with how they stuck together throughout the entire year. It was a true team effort."

 

Virginia also beat No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Florida and No. 13 Cal en route to the title.

 

The match was delayed about an hour because of rain and lightning in the area and was moved indoors.

In women's action, No. 15 Stanford earned its crown with a comeback 4-3 victory over No. 12 Oklahoma State.

OSU took the early lead in the championship match, earning the doubles point with wins by Katarina Adamovic-Vladica Babic and Maria Alvarez-Kelsey Laurente.

 

Stanford's Krista Hardebeck evened the score with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Laurente, before the Cowgirls took a 3-1 lead over Stanford with singles wins by Adamovic and Viktoriya Lushkova. Stanford freshmen Caroline Lampl and Melissa Lord fought back to tie the match at 3-all, and then Stanford junior Taylor Davidson (pictured above) fought off a match point in the second set before defeating Oklahoma State's Vladica Babic, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, to clinch the championship for the Cardinal.

 

"They gave us almost more than we could handle today," said Stanford coach Lele Forood, who picked up her eighth NCAA team title with the win. "It was an incredible match. It was very back and forth. There were ups and downs. It was amazing."

 

Stanford knocked off several high seeds en route to the championship, including No. 2 Florida, No. 10 Michigan and No. 6 Vanderbilt, in addition to No. 12 Oklahoma State.

 

Oklahoma State, which had never before advanced beyond the Sweet 16, was attempting to win its first national championship in any women's sport.

 

The final was the first NCAA women's championship match that did not feature any Top 10 seeds.

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