Women’s Singles Championship Match Quotes • May 30 #2 seed, , Virginia defeated #1 seed Hayley Carter (North Carolina) 6-3, 6-2 On mindset having previously facing Hayley Carter multiple times… “Hayley is such a tough competitor and as you guys can probably tell she gets every ball back and never gives up. So a lot of the matches that we’ve played in the past have been really close, she’s beaten me a couple times and I’ve beaten her a couple times so I knew it was going to be a really tough match and I was going to have to play my absolute best to beat her. She wasn’t going to give me any free points so going out there I had to focus and concentrate so hard every point, especially with how many balls she was getting back. I just really had to tap into my focus a lot differently than maybe I would’ve had to in other matches just because of how tough she really is.”

On approaching Carter who’s repetitively dropped the first set then battled back the last two sets to win… “Well the last two matches I played I had an issue where I would be up in my sets and the other person would come back and get it even for a while so today when I went on the court I was like ‘not today alright’. She did come back in the first set, I was up 3-0 then she got it back 3 all. Then going into the second set I thought ‘well she’s going to start doing something different because she’s down’ so I just kind of had to expect it but I really didn’t want to let her in and get her momentum going in her direction.”

On difference being a national champion before in 2014 and now a two-time champ today… “I feel like it’s harder winning it a second time than it is the first time. The first time I was in my second year and I wasn’t seeded. My first year at Florida I didn’t really play a ton and I was playing lower in the lineup. Nobody really expected me to win it in 2014 so I didn’t really have much pressure on me going into the tournament but this tournament, in some people’s book, I was the favorite to win or I was predicted to get to the finals and so there was that added pressure just because of winning it before. I just took it one match at a time and knew that regardless of the outcome I’ve worked hard enough and luckily have had a lot of success in my college career to where regardless of the outcome I would’ve ended a successful career and been all good.

On this second championship being sweeter than the first… “Yeah, I think so. I think mentally it was a lot tougher to win this one but I did it and I don’t really know how at this point as it’s kind of a blur. It’s pretty sweet to go out winning a national championship again to end my career. I’m just very fortunate.”

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES • It is just the second time Virginia has won the NCAA singles title. Collins also won the first championship for Virginia in 2014.

• Danielle Collins is a two-time singles champion. She also won the singles title in 2014. She is the seventh player to win the singles championship twice since women’s sports came under the NCAA umbrella in 1982, and only the second student-athlete not from Stanford to accomplish the feat. The others were: , Stanford (1986, 1987), , Stanford (1989, 1991), , Florida (1992, 1993), , Stanford (2000, 2001), , Stanford (2003, 2004), and , Stanford (2012-2013).

• Collins increased her career record against Hayley Carter to 4-2. In three matches this year, Carter won the first, while the other two matches (ACC tournament and NCAA Team Championship) went unfinished.