NCAA Update: Collard Wins DI National Doubles Title

Melodie Collard couldn’t ask for a greater end to the 2024 calendar yr. The 21-year-old from Gatineau, QC, who performs for the College of Virginia reigned supreme on the 2024-25 NCAA Division I Particular person Tennis Championships final week, claiming the doubles title with common companion Elaine Chervinsky.  

Let’s meet up with the newest information from Canadians competing within the NCAA.        

Regardless of being the No. 3 tandem within the NCAA’s pre-season rankings, Collard and Chervinsky had been unseeded on the Nationwide Championships. The pair had been the definition of clutch on the event in Waco, Texas, successful all 5 of their matches in a match tiebreak. The primary three had been all received 10-7 adopted by a 10-8 squeaker within the semis. Within the title match, Collard and Chervinsky got here again to defeat Kate Fakih and Olivia Middle of UCLA 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to win the title.  

Collard defeated two of her fellow Canadians on the way in which to the ultimate, beating Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs of the College of Washington within the first spherical.  

For the reason that begin of the educational yr in September, Collard and Chervinsky have an astounding 17-1 file and are at present on a 13-match successful streak that features their title on the DI Atlantic Regional Championships final month. The nationwide title is the primary doubles crown for the College of Virginia in this system’s historical past. The one different gamers from the college to win the nationwide title, each in singles, had been WTA stars Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro. 

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Collard is the primary Canadian to win a nationwide particular person title since Cleeve Harper received the boys’s doubles for the College of Texas in 2022 and the primary girl since Ayan Broomfield received the doubles for UCLA in 2019. Mia Kupres and Carson Branstine received the nationwide workforce title with Texas A&M earlier in 2024. 

Annabelle Xu, Collard’s fellow Virginia Cavalier, competed in each singles and doubles in Waco, reaching the second spherical of every draw. 

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Two different Canadians competed on the Nationwide Particular person Championships. Jessica Alsola of the College of California, Berkeley, misplaced within the first spherical of the ladies’s doubles, whereas Duncan Chan of Texas Christian College went out within the first spherical of the boys’s singles.  

Click on right here to view all of the Canadian rankings within the NCAA.