CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The UCF women’s tennis team dominated the W15 Champaign event, claiming both the singles and the doubles crowns Saturday, Nov. 13. Sophomore Stefani Webb earned her first professional singles title in the event, having come up just short as the runner-up in the W15 Caloundra event over the summer. Webb and junior Sophia Biolay paired up for the doubles competition and brought home the first doubles title won by two active Knights with the victory.
Webb entered the tournament as the second seed, her highest seeding in any International Tennis Federation women’s singles event. Her first opponent was qualifier Josie Frazier, a fifth-year from Illinois, who she swiftly defeated in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. In the second round, the Melbourne, Australia, native went head-to-head with Tamara Barad Itzhaki, who boasts a career-high ITF singles ranking of 197. Webb never hesitated in the match, taking down Barad Itzhaki 6-1, 6-2. This proved to be the last straight-set victory for Webb in her march to the title, with the remaining matches being split set.
In the quarterfinals, the sophomore faced her first seeded opponent of the tournament in fifth-seeded Kennedy Shaffer. The Georgia alum has racked up a career-high ITF singles ranking of 195 since going pro in 2018. The match went back and forth between the two players, with both picking up a set 7-5 to send it to a third set. Early in the final set, Webb picked up a break and never looked back, defeating Shaffer 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals. Qualifier Annika Penickova was waiting for the Knight and immediately picked up the first set after it went to a tiebreak, with neither competitor able to pick up a break, 6(7)-7.
A quick reset in the changeover from Webb propelled her to take the second set, 6-4, and the third with astounding margins, taking the match 6(7)-7, 6-4, 6-1. Sixth-seeded Gina Marie Dittmann of NC State was set to be the final opponent for the sophomore. Dittmann, a member of the 2023 NCAA Runner-Up Wolfpack, had only dropped two sets in her fight to the finals and was also hungry for her first ITF singles title, just like Webb.
After a quick 6-2 first set victory for Webb, Dittmann fought back in the second set to earn herself a 6-2 set win, sending the final to a third set. With her first professional singles title within reach, Webb kicked it into high gear and took the final set 6-1 to win the W15 Champaign.
In just their second time pairing up together for doubles, Webb and Biolay had quite the run to win their doubles title. Their first matchup was against Ashton Bowers, a signee from Auburn, and Kolie Allen, a recent graduate of Ohio State, in the duos first tournament together.
The American tandem put up a fight in the first set, sending it to a tiebreak, but Webb and Biolay put the pressure on and advanced to the quarterfinals with a score of 7-6(4), 6-4. A familiar opponent awaited in the quarterfinals as the Knights tandem took on the Illinois duo of Frazier and McKenna Schaefbauer. The Knights took both sets to advance to the semifinals, 6-2, 7-5. Webb met up with Dittmann once more, this time with fellow NC State player Kristina Paskauskas.
The Wolfpack tandem entered the tournament with the fourth seed and took the first set of the matchup, 6-4. Determined to keep pushing, the Knights took a 6-4 set of their own to force the match to a 10-point tiebreak.
The back-and-forth third set went Webb and Biolay’s way to propel them to the final, 4-6, 6-4, 10-7. Waiting for UCF in the final was the third-seeded Oklahoma State duo of Raquel Gonzalez Vilar and Ayumi Miyamoto, who Webb and Biolay defeated swiftly in two sets to take the crown, 7-5, 6-3.