The No. 6 North Carolina women’s tennis team headed into the weekend needing turn its luck around against a pair of ACC teams from Florida after its first back-to-back losses in game play since 2012.
No. 13 Miami visited Chapel Hill Friday night for a match that would prove to be a test for the Tar Heels, and trouble started early for UNC with the doubles point.
Junior Hayley Carter and senior Whitney Kay avenged their first defeat of the season as a doubles team by winning 6-2. But senior Kate Vialle and first-year Jessie Aney fell 6-3 in their match, putting the weight on senior Ashley Dai and first-year Chloe Ouellet-Pizer.
Dai and Ouellet-Pizer would power through to give UNC the doubles point with a 6-3 victory. Leading 1-0 going into singles, North Carolina needed three victories to secure the match.
UNC quickly gained a 3-0 lead behind sophomore Cassandra Vazquez’s 6-2, 6-3 win and Aney’s 6-2, 6-1 victory, but momentum shifted quickly for the Tar Heels. Kay lost her match 3-6, 6-7 and sophomore Marika Akkerman fell in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 3-6. Miami suddenly slimmed UNC's lead to 3-2.
Meanwhile, after dropping her first set 6-7 (10-8), Carter won her second set 6-0. Going into her third set, Carter had the momentum but had to take an injury timeout. She ended up losing the third set 5-7 but not without injury timeouts for both players and much controversy with the umpire’s calls from both sides.
Once again, the weight of the match was put on Ouellet-Pizer. She lost her first set 5-7 but came back in the second set with a 7-5 victory. In the third set, the first-year kept her momentum to secure the victory 6-3 for her and a 4-3 win for the Tar Heels.
Sunday was a much different story against Florida State. In doubles, Aney and Vialle won 6-3 and Carter and Kay came back from a 3-0 deficit to win 6-4 and quickly give the doubles point to UNC.
In singles, Aney dominated 6-1, 6-0, Carter was victorious 6-1, 6-1 and Vazquez won 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the victory for North Carolina.
