UNC women's tennis looks to bounce back

Heading down south did not turn out the way the North Carolina women's tennis team would have liked, as they fell to No. 2 Florida 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the Ring Tennis Complex. Coach Brian Kalbas hopes heading in the opposite direction will result in a better outcome. The Tar Heels will leave Tuesday for Madison, Wis., to join 15 other teams at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Kalbas said he told his players that he was pleased with the effort they put forth against Florida. He also said the match in Gainesville will be a great learning experience for the entire team. "We've put ourselves in a position, if we can learn from it, to really have a special season," Kalbas said. "We've got good senior leadership, and we've got talented players down the line." The Tar Heels have been solid all season securing the doubles point, but the Gators' relentless attack led to a quick 1-0 lead, and ultimately, the deciding point. UNC seniors Jenna Long and Sara Anundsen, ranked No. 16 in the nation, won their doubles match 8-1 against the No. 14 team of Whitney Benik and Nina Suvak, but the Gators took the other two doubles contests 9-7 and 9-8 (3). "Winning that doubles point is a huge momentum for the team that gets it," Anundsen said. "I don't think our team played the best tennis we could have played." Long, who was named the ACC women's tennis player of the week Monday, defeated No. 11 Diana Srebrovic in singles play. Anundsen and Austin Smith also won singles matches for UNC, but the team came up a point short and failed to duplicate last season's exciting victory against the Gators. North Carolina won't have much time to regroup because it will face a large pool of qualified competitors throughout the weekend. All but two teams are ranked in the top 20. "The fact that we lost 4-3 and we weren't playing our best tennis is something we can take positively from the match," Anundsen said. "We're playing all these top-20 teams, so that gives us a lot of confidence." UNC will compete next at 10 a.m. Thursday against No. 16 Texas Christian University. The Tar Heels will be able to get in two practices on Wednesday, and Kalbas said the close match against Florida gives UNC an advantage. "Having dealt with pressure situations against a really good team, that is really going to help us in this tournament." Fencing struggles at Penn State Duals over weekend The fencing team reached the midway point of its season on Saturday, when it struggled to a 2-7 finish against a very competitive field at the Penn State Duals. The men finished 1-3, while the women went 1-4. Both teams notched their only win against Drew University. The Duals drew some of the toughest teams in the nation. Both teams faced Ohio State, Penn and St. John's, all of whom regularly appear in the top 10 in the nation. The women's team also competed against Temple. "We fenced some of the hardest competition all year," freshman Jennifer Sawicki said. "We really rallied and fought to the last bouts." Sawicki finished with a 7-7 record for the weekend. Each of these opponents have a distinct recruiting advantage over UNC's program because their athletic programs offer fencing scholarships. North Carolina's team is predominantly walk-ons. According to assistant coach Josh Webb, it was close bouts and a lack of focus that troubled the Tar Heels at Penn State. "If you look at just wins and losses, we didn't do that great," he said. "If you look at how we actually competed, it was much better." There were a lot of 5-4 bouts lost that could have gone either way and wound up costing UNC in the end, Webb said. Senior Joe Pipkin finished with the Tar Heels' best record at 6-2. Sophomore Bobby Ziechmann and senior captain Courtney Krolikoski also turned in near-.500 records. With half of the season under its belt, the team will treat this as a wake-up call and look to build off of it in the second half of competition. "We need to be more assertive in how we control bouts," senior captain Mike Burkhart said. "We need to not fence into their game and take control ourselves." The next time the Tar Heels fence will be this weekend in the UCSD Duals in San Diego, which will feature opponents such as Stanford, Air Force, and host UC-San Diego. "We definitely have the talent and drive," Sawicki said. "Now we should start peaking and making it all come together." Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.