UNC women’s tennis team sweeps road weekend in Virginia

The No. 11 North Carolina women’s tennis team is on a roll.

The Tar Heels extended their winning streak to nine matches with a win over No. 8 Virginia, 4-3.

The Tar Heels capped off a perfect weekend, beating Virginia Tech on Friday and Virginia on Sunday.

North Carolina’s win over No.8 Virginia gave the Tar Heels their first victory over a top-10 opponent this season.

“It was a huge win for us in a lot of ways,” junior Zoe De Bruycker said.

“We’ve been looking for a statement win, and I’m glad to finally get it.”

The score indicates that the win was a close one for the Tar Heels, but North Carolina had clinched the victory before the last two individual matches finished.

“It’s nice to not have it come down to the last match,” De Bruycker said. “Especially after the way our past matches have finished.”

The previous two times North Carolina played the Cavaliers, the outcome hadn’t been decided until the final match.

While the Tar Heels were able to seal the victory early against the higher-ranked Cavaliers, North Carolina head coach Brian Kalbas still believes that the team has yet to reach its full potential.

“We haven’t completely put together the perfect match at all positions, but we’re well on our way,” Kalbas said.

But Kalbas did take time to highlight two players’ performances – freshman Caroline Price and junior Gina Suarez-Malaguti.

Price and Suarez-Malaguti won both their singles matches. Price won 6-3, 6-4, and Suarez-Malaguti took her match 6-2, 6-2.

As teammates in the doubles match they beat Caryssa Peretz and Molly O’Koniewski, 8-1.

The win in Charlottesvile came on the heels of a 7-0 thrashing of No. 59 Virginia Tech on Friday in Blacksburg.

After a less than stellar start to the season, the Tar Heels finally seem to be hitting their stride.

“In the beginning of the season we didn’t know what to expect from everyone,” sophomore Tessa Lyons said.

“But we’re really starting to come together now. We are finally starting to find ourselves as a team.”

Kalbas credits the team’s hot streak to how tightly knit the team has become as a unit over the course of the season.

“The number of road trips has brought our team together,” Kalbas said.

“We really bonded on our Spring Break trip to Puerto Rico.”

Kalbas is taking it one match at a time as his team looks forward to the rest of the season, but he hopes this win will help keep the momentum rolling.

The Tar Heels will be on the road again next weekend with a match Friday at No. 21 Georgia Tech and a match Sunday at Clemson.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.