Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 6 | June 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 35 W O M E N ’ S T E N N I S NOVOTNA SO • VYSOKA NAD LABEM, CZECHREPUBLIC Natalie T he Virginia Tech women’s tennis team struggled at times this past season, but still managed to beat three ranked teams during the regular season and then made a nice little run at the ACC Championships. The player who played the main role in many of the Hokies’ big wins was Natalie Novotna. Novotna enjoyed a solid sophomore season, going 24-13 overall, including 16-10 in dual-match action. Her 24 victories led the Hokies, along with the 16 wins in duals and six victories over nationally ranked opponents. She also led the squad in tournament singles wins with eight and tied for the team lead in ACC wins with six. Perhaps most impressively, all 16 of her dual wins came out of the No. 1 spot in the lineup where she constantly went up against the opposing team’s best player. Novotna’s best win came at the ACC Championships, where she knocked of Florida State’s Carla Touly, who came in ranked No. 19 nationally, but lost 6-0, 6-4 to Novotna. That win propelled the Hokies to a 4-3 upset of the then-No. 17 Seminoles. Novotna also beat No. 65 Anna Rogers of NC State in three sets and No. 83 Asiya Dair of Boston College in straight sets in matches earlier in the season. Novotna earned second-team All-ACC honors at the conclusion of the ACC season, and she received an at-large bid to the NCAA Women’s Singles Championships—the lone Hokie to do so this season and just the third under head coach Terry Ann Zawacki-Woods. Novotna fell to No. 23 Michaela Bayerlova of Washington State in the first round. Tech loses three seniors off this season’s squad, but Novotna returns to lead a lineup that will be looking to make a move upward in the ACC standings next spring.