Demon Deacons Edge UNC in Final Match

WINSTON-SALEM -- The 19th-ranked Wake Forest women's tennis team reeled off its sixth consecutive victory and third straight win against a higher-ranked opponent, defeating

No. 13 North Carolina 4-3 at the Wake Forest Indoor Tennis Center on Wednesday.

North Carolina (10-5, 1-2 in the ACC) got on the board first by winning the doubles point, shutting out the Demon Deacons at No. 2 and 3 doubles.

The Tar Heels' second-seed tandem of Marlene Mejia and Julie Rotondi won 8-0 against Wake Forest's Maren Haus and Aimee Smith, while Erin Niebling and Courtney Zalinski also pitched an 8-0 shutout at No. 3 doubles against Jackie Houston and Elizabeth Proctor.

The Wake duo of Bea Bielik and Janet Bergman, won 8-4 against UNC's Kendrick Bunn and Kate Pinchbeck at No. 1 doubles.

As singles matches began, Houston tied the match score quickly with a 6-1, 6-1 win at the No. 4 seed against Bunn.

UNC's Rotondi made quick work of her singles match, topping Haus 6-1, 6-2 at the third seed.

At the No. 2 seed singles, No. 20 Bergman scored Wake's second point by defeating Pinchbeck, 6-4, 6-2.

UNC went up 3-2 as Kristen Koenig topped Smith, 6-3, 6-4 at the sixth seed.

In a battle of highly-ranked players, Wake Forest's Bielik, ranked sixth nationally, took the No. 1 seed singles in straight sets over 14th-ranked Mejia (7-6, 6-3) to even the match score at three apiece.

The match then came down to No. 5 singles, where Wake's Proctor dropped the first set 6-3 to UNC's Elina Bairos. Proctor took the second set 6-2, then went up 4-1 in the third before Bairos battled back to even the set at four games apiece. Proctor went up 6-5, then broke Bairos' serve in the final game to secure her singles match (3-6, 6-2, 7-5) as well as the match victory for Wake Forest.