The North Carolina women’s tennis team opened up its 2018 campaign on the right note with two shutout wins this weekend against William & Mary and Richmond.
In the first of the doubleheader, against William & Mary, No. 5 Tar Heels won the match 7-0.
In the doubles matches, UNC didn’t have any blemishes, winning all three matches while only surrendering five games combined en route to clinching the doubles point. Notably, Jessie Aney and Alexa Graham defeated Rosie Cheng and Lauren Goodman, 6-1, and Marika Akkerman and Jones defeated Perry and Cecily Wuenscher, 6-1, as well.
No. 38 Sara Daavettila won in straight sets without surrendering a game 6-0, 6-0 against William & Mary’s Ekaterina Stepanova on Court Three. Straight sets continued to be the trend as No. 9 Alle Sanford beat No. 68 Clara Tanielian 6-2, 6-2, No. 18 Aney defeated Natalia Perry 6-3, 6-3 and Graham finished off Olivia Thaler 6-2, 6-2.
Both No. 11 Makenna Jones and No. 124 Chloe Ouellet-Pitzer needed the final sets to defeat their opponents, but they pulled it out nonetheless and ultimately earned North Carolina two more match wins on the day.
Against Richmond, North Carolina’s winning ways not only continued but the team seemed to gain strength despite playing their second team in the same day.
On the singles side, UNC won every single match — all six of them — without surrendering one set to the Spiders. Furthermore, just two of those sets ended up going more than nine games which included Jones defeating Dessislava Zlateva 6-0 after winning the first set 6-4 in one of the closest sets of the day.
The Tar Heels continued to dominate the Spiders in the doubles with Daavettila and Sanford defeating Emily Dunbar and Zlateva 6-1, Jones and Ouellet-Pizer beating Kiana Marshall and Lyndell Giffenig 6-1, and Maggie Kane and Cassandra Vazquez defeating Lea Owens and Adrienne Hayes 6-3.
North Carolina lived up to its preseason top-five ranking in the country with its 14-0 performance in Virginia on Saturday. And the Tar Heels did it in astonishing fashion, considering they played 18 matches — against two different schools on the same day — without dropping one.
