CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Senior
Lauren Long of the Washington and Lee women's tennis team was eliminated from the 2026 NCAA Division III Singles Championship in Saturday's quarterfinal round by 10th-ranked Alessandra Sikharulidze of Babson.
QUARTERFINALS – ALESSANDRA SIKHARULIDZE (BAB) def. LONG (WLU), 6-3, 7-5
After having her serve broken to open the match, Long broke Sikharulidze's serve on a deuce point before holding serve to take a 2-1 lead. Sikharulidze answered with a hold and a break of Long's serve, but Long tied the opening set in the next game, 3-3, by breaking Sikharulidze again on deuce point.
Sikharulidze then won the final three games of the first set to take the one-set lead, which included two more breaks of Long's serve.
The second set was about as even as it gets, with seven breaks of serve in the 12 games played and five deuce points. Neither player ever led in the second set by multiple games until Sikharulidze closed out the set and match, 7-5. Long broke Sikharulidze's serve three times in the second set, but Sikharulidze won three of the five deuce points.
LONG END-OF-SEASON NOTES:
Long closed out a highly successful playing career on Saturday, capping her weekend as the first player for the program to appear in the national singles quarterfinals since Brooke Donnelly '17 in 2017. She will also be officially recognized as an All-American in singles for the fourth consecutive season, the third player to achieve that in program history (Sonja Meighan '15, Lindsay Hagerman '05).
Long rounds out her career with a combined record of 124-41, split up between 67-16 in singles and 57-25 in doubles. Long also owned a career 4-3 record in NCAA Singles Tournament play. Overall, Long won at least 16 singles matches each season of her career.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
