The North Carolina women’s tennis team had mixed results in this weekend’s USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
Coming in to the championship match Sunday, senior Hayley Carter had not dropped a set yet in the tournament. But Carter lost in the championship game to sophomore Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State for the fourth straight time — and the second time this season. Still, Carter feels good about her game heading into the spring season.
“Since (the Oracle/ITA Masters in) Malibu, I’ve probably worked the hardest I’ve ever worked in a long time,” she said. “I went in extra every single day, and obviously the end result today wasn’t what I wanted.
"But I think it showed over the course of the week. And I’m really proud of how I played this week.”
Sophomore Jessie Aney fell in the second round to Josie Kuhlman from Florida. The duo of Carter and Aney came up short in the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament against the nation’s No. 1 tandem of Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky.
First-year Sara Daavettila lost a tight three-set match in the opening round to No. 72 Lily Miyazaki of Oklahoma. After being placed in the consolation bracket, Daavettila went on to win the final against No. 5 Sinead Lohan of Miami, who reached the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in May.
“I knew I could do a lot better,” Daavettila said. “And I was just thinking, 'Go out and give this your all. This is the last tournament of the fall, how do you want to go out?' So I really got down and put everything in to it.”
Daavettila has performed well in the first part of her rookie season, improving her finishes each time she takes the court. It started with reaching the quarterfinals of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, and then she reached the semifinals of the Oracle/ITA Masters. She followed that up by defeating teammate Aney at the ITA regional final in Chapel Hill.
Her performance has not been surprising to teammates and coaches — considering she was ranked as the No. 1 first-year coming into the season — but it does give them high hopes for how she can help the team when the spring season begins.
