The North Carolina women’s tennis team competed at the ITA All-American Championships from Saturday, Oct. 5, through Sunday, Oct. 13, with senior Alexa Graham advancing to the championship match in singles play in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
What happened?
Seniors Sara Daavettila and Graham, ranked No. 20 in doubles, secured a highly-contested victory, 8-7 (4), in the first round against the No. 4 duo of Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart from UCLA. The North Carolina team went on to convincingly defeat a second ranked pair in No. 19 Eleni Christofi and Vivian Wolff of Georgia, 8-3.
Graham and Daavettila’s run came to an end in the quarterfinal round, as the tandem was defeated by No. 29 Jessie Gong and Samantha Martinelli from Yale in an 8-5 defeat on Friday, Oct. 11.
A second North Carolina doubles pair, the No. 3 duo of senior Makenna Jones and sophomore Cameron Morra, reached the quarterfinals in doubles competition as well. Jones and Morra secured two convincing victories, one of which came against a ranked pair in No. 27 Holly Hutchinson and Brooke Pilkington of Old Dominion, before being eliminated by No. 24 Tenika McGiffin and Kaitlin Staines from Tennessee.
No. 3 Makenna Jones, No. 4 Alexa Graham, No. 7 Sara Daavettila and No. 12 Cameron Morra all competed in the singles bracket in Tulsa, with each of them earning first-round victories against ranked opponents.
Graham lived up to her reputation as one of the top players in the country, making it all the way to the finals before the senior was upset by No. 14 Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. Lahey had defeated Graham earlier in the season, knocking her out in the quarterfinals of the Oracle ITA Masters at the end of September.
Outside of Graham, Daavettila advanced the deepest in singles play before she was eliminated by No. 17 Anna Turati of Texas in a three-set match during the quarterfinals round.
