The No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team beat No. 14 Virginia, 5-2, on Friday in Charlottesville, Va. for its sixth ACC win.
What happened?
North Carolina (18-1, 6-0 ACC) took an early lead against Virginia (10-4, 4-3) after narrowly sweeping the doubles matches. Head coach Brian Kalbas changed the lineup, breaking apart the usual Makenna Jones-Cameron Morra duo. Kalbas instead paired junior Jones with sophomore Alle Sanford, and first-year Morra with junior Sara Daavettila.
Jones and Sanford finished their match first, beating Virginia’s Vivian Golzman and Sofia Munera, 6-4. The No. 9 pair of senior Jessie Aney and junior Alexa Graham defeated No. 58 Chloe Gullickson and Amber O’Dell, 7-5. The two wins gave the Tar Heels the double point and a a 1-0 advantage over Virginia going into singles. Daavettila and Morra left their match unfinished.
Virginia took the lead in singles with two wins against No. 20 Morra and senior Chloe Ouellett-Pizer, bringing the score to 2-1. Morra lost, 6-1, 6-3, to O’Dell. Ouellet-Pizer lost, 6-3, 6-1, to Munera.
But Virginia’s success would be short lived. No. 14 Daavettila won the first singles match for the Tar Heels against Gullickson, 6-3, 6-3. Aney was next to finish, defeating Bleser, 7-5, 6-0, to grab a 3-2 lead for the Tar Heels.
Cementing the lead, No. 5 Jones defeated Vivian Glozman, 6-4, 6-2, to bring the Tar Heel lead to 4-2. No. 6 Graham finished the match with a win over No. 33 Kelley, 6-2, 7-6.
Who stood out?
Jones produced results for UNC on the front end and the tail end, getting the ball rolling with a doubles win to kick off the competition and bringing it home for the Tar Heels with her singles match victory against Virginia’s Glozman.
