ORLANDO, Fla. – No. 22 Valeriya Zeleva and No. 38 Rebeka Stolmar saw their seasons come to a close in the first round of the NCAA Singles Championship on Sunday afternoon.
No. 22 Zeleva was unable to advance past Virginia's No. 9-16 nationally seeded, ninth ranked Natasha Subhash. After going down in the first set 0-4, Zeleva rallied all the way back to take a 5-4 lead. She went on to take the first frame by a count of 7-5. The two were stride for stride in the second stanza, but in the end it was Subhash who took the 6-4 victory. The match ended in favor of Subhash, who tallied the 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win.
The loss was Zeleva's first since the end of January when she lost her opening two matches during ITA Kickoff Weekend. It was all gas and no breaks from there as Zeleva earned 13-consecutive victories leading up to the NCAA Singles Championships. Zeleva climbed as high as No. 17 in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings, setting a new personal and program record along the way.
UCF's captain, No. 38 Stolmar was matched up with Georgia's No. 55 Lea Ma in the first round. Ma took the first frame by a count of 6-1 and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. With her back against the wall down 2-5, Stolmar earned a hold and a break to hang in the match and trail 4-5. Ma ended up getting a final break as she beat Stolmar 6-1, 6-4.
Stolmar's incredible career is now in the record books as she'll go down as one of the best to ever put on a Knight uniform. She collected 129 victories along the way and climbed as high as No. 28 in the singles rankings, making her the second-highest ranked singles player in program history. She was a part of UCF's highest ranked doubles tandem as Stolmar and Marie Mattel climbed to No. 3 in the doubles rankings in November of 2019. She helped the Black and Gold to back-to-back conference titles as part of The American after having not won a conference title since 2002.
This was the first occurrence in program history that two Knights had participated in the NCAA Singles Championship in the same season. Stolmar became the third Knight to earn a spot in the NCAA singles draw after Zeleva became the second in 2019. Zeleva is the first player to wear the Black and Gold and make two appearances at the NCAA Singles Championships.
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