BLACKSBURG, Va. – Highlighted by a pair of program firsts, the Navy women's tennis team closed out its stay Sunday in the 2025 Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Atlantic Regional Championship at Virginia Tech's Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center in Blacksburg, Va.
 
Opening the event Thursday by having junior Olivia Fermo, sophomore Emma Gu and freshman Nicole Fu each win two qualifying matches to join sophomore Molly Bellia in Friday's singles main draw, the quartet marked the first time in program history Navy put four players into the main singles flight, with each of the four going on to win a match in either the main or consolation draws. On the doubles side, Fermo and Fu partnered for three-straight wins in the main draw to reach the doubles quarterfinals, becoming the first Navy pairing to reach the regional's quarterfinal round.
 
Continuing a strong start to her collegiate career, Fu got qualifying singles wins against William & Mary's Yaelle Vaissaud (4-6, 6-1, 6-0) and Delaware State's Lucia Casas Blas (6-1, 6-0) to earn a matchup with Arina Gamretkaia of Virginia Tech in the main draw's round-of-64. Knocking off Gamretkaia in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 battle, Fu's run ended in the round-of-32 when she was edged out by Virginia's Vivian Yang, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
 
Gu had a similar stretch in singles action, winning qualifying matches over GW's Alexandra Lindqvist, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Richmond's Abby Lee, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, to set up a main-draw round-of-64 battle with GW's Victoria Sasinka. Holding on for the 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory against Sasinka, Gu was upended in the next round by Emma Ghirardato of Maryland in a 6-1, 6-3 contest.
 
Earning an automatic bid into the main draw, Bellia began her singles competition with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Venus Tang of Mount St. Mary's in the opening round, but lost a three-set battle with Virginia Tech's Ozlem Uslu in the round-of-32, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
 
For Fermo, her weekend got started with a 6-1, 6-4 win over West Virginia's Lucia Tognoni in the first qualifying round of singles and followed by beating George Mason's Maya Bayat, 6-3, 6-1, to punch her ticket to the main draw. After falling to the No. 4 seed Kira Matushkina of Old Dominion, 6-0, 6-3, in the round-of-64, Fermo bounced back by defeating conference foe Christine Richiez (Loyola) by a 6-3, 6-4 score in her lone consolation match.
 
With Fermo and Fu teaming up, the Mids' pairing notched a first-round victory, 8-5, over host Virginia Tech's Mila Mulready and Linda Ziets-Segura, and followed it up with an 8-3 win against William & Mary's Francesca Davis and Tilda Larsson to reach the round-of-16. That next round featured another 8-3 win, this time over Liberty's Yoanna Radulova and Maria Turchetto to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. Squaring off with Ghirardato and her Maryland teammate Ema Kovacevic, the Terps' duo edged out the Fu-Fermo connection in an 8-2 decision.
 
The longtime doubles pairing of Bellia and Gu also got off hot, posting an 8-0 victory in the round-of-64 over Delaware State's Kayla Wright and Audrey Yvana Mengue, before getting beat by Matushkina and Victoria Matasova in an 8-1 second-round contest.
 
Head Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"This was by far our program's most successful regional championship. Never before have we had all of our players who entered into the qualifiers make it through to the main draw, then we also had three win their first-round match to boot. Molly and Nicole in their second-round matches competed well against two of the toughest in the region, losing in three sets, while both doubles teams won their first round as well. Nicole and Liv beat players from three regionally-ranked teams last year in Virginia Tech, William & Mary and Liberty - accomplishing a first for our program by making it to Sunday's quarterfinal round - before losing to a tough Maryland pairing. The results bode well for where we are now, but much work remains for these four ladies and our entire team to continue to improve and prepare for the challenges ahead."
 
Up Next
Navy will send representatives to the Patriot League's ITA Conference Masters qualifying tournament, set for Oct. 24-26 in Bethlehem, Pa.