Saturday sports roundup: Women's tennis stays undefeated, volleyball wins and more

With several of North Carolina's fall sports teams adding spring seasons to their 2020-2021 schedules, The Daily Tar Heel will be recapping some of the action from this spring's busy weekends in roundups every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Volleyball: UNC 3, Wake Forest 1 (Friday)

The Tar Heels got off to a slow start in the match, dropping the first set, 25-19. Not only did UNC struggle with its defense, but also hitting, as the team’s hitting percentage was only 0.115 to Wake Forest’s 0.235. 

In the second set, North Carolina was much more energetic. Sophomore Skyy Howard started to establish her presence, and UNC was able to convert on its attack opportunities en route to a 25-21 win.

Service pressure was the name of the game in the third set, as junior libero Ryan Shannon gave the Tar Heels early momentum with back-to-back aces. UNC continued its strong play throughout the remainder of the set, and ultimately won, 25-16.

Although they trailed early in the fourth set, the Tar Heels pulled away late to clinch a 25-20 victory. UNC relied on its blocking to seal the win, as the team finished with five blocks in the closing set.

Howard led the Tar Heels with 16 kills, while sophomore libero Karenna Wurl paced the defense with 18 digs. 

Karlie Nielson, staff writer

Women's tennis: UNC 6, Duke 1 (Friday)

The No. 1 UNC women’s tennis team (17-0, 7-0 ACC) faced No. 9 Duke (10-3, 5-2 ACC) in the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Friday afternoon. North Carolina beat Duke, 6-1, making the Tar Heels one of the two teams to defeat the Blue Devils this season.

The Tar Heels clinched the doubles point, with court three’s duo of first-year Reilly Tran and senior Alle Sanford  winning 6-2 and court one’s team of senior Sara Daavettila and junior Cameron Morra finishing the majority 6-1.

Beginning singles play with an early lead, Tran finished first with on court six with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep. No. 49 senior Makenna Jones followed, finishing 6-1, 6-2 to give the Tar Heels their third point of the match. 

On courts four, five and one, No. 120 first-year Fiona Crawley, sophomore Anika Yarlagadda and No. 4 Daavettila earned the team three more points, respectively. No. 6 Morra battled her way through three hard-fought sets on court two, losing 7-6 (4), 0-6, 0-1 (10).

The Tar Heels’ win streak is now up to 35 matches. UNC will look to make it 36 against Virginia Tech next week in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Kaitlyn Schmidt, staff writer

Women's golf: UNC 8th

The North Carolina women’s golf team faced off against No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Wake Forest, and N.C. State in the Big Four Challenge on Saturday at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh.

The Tar Heels were coming off of an eighth place finish out of 18 teams at the Briar Creek Invitation.

UNC took on Wake Forest on Saturday morning for the first round of play, but ultimately lost all five matchups to the Demon Deacons. The Tar Heels responded in the afternoon, as UNC took four out of the five matchups against N.C. State. 

Junior Nicole Lu shot the best individual score of the day for UNC with a 79 in the individual tournament, followed closely by Ava Bergner, who shot an 82.

The UNC women’s golf team will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia on April 6 to participate in the Cavalier Match Play. 

Lindsey Ware, staff writer

Men's soccer: UNC 0, Syracuse 0

The North Carolina men’s soccer team (5-3-3, 5-1-3 ACC) tied Syracuse (1-6-4, 0-5-3 ACC), 0-0, in double overtime at the Syracuse University Soccer Stadium on Saturday.

In the 6th minute, sophomore forward Jonathan Jimenez was pushed on the edge of the box on what was almost a penalty kick. The rest of the first half was scoreless as both teams were unable to create any type of an attack.

The second half was much of the same as both teams had trouble creating any kind of pressure. This was until the end of the second half when Syracuse’s Manel Busquets looked as if he had scored the winning goal with less than a second left in the game. The officials, however, called Busquets for a foul and the game went into overtime.

Yet again in overtime, neither side was able to make any offense and the game ended with 0’s all across the scoreboard.

The tie was the first for UNC since November 1, 2020 in the fall season when UNC tied N.C. State, 0-0. 

North Carolina will take on Notre Dame next Saturday for the first time since losing to the Fighting Irish in the ACC Quarterfinals in the fall.

Noah Monroe, staff writer

Gymnastics EAGL Championship: UNC 5th

The UNC gymnastics team competed in the EAGL Championship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, placing fifth out of seven teams.

Sophomore Elizabeth Culton shined for the Tar Heels, placing first individually in the all-around, bars, and tying for first with her teammate Hallie Thompson and Towson’s Emerson Hurst on beam.

UNC had the highest team score on beam, with 49.275. Behind Culton and Thompson, junior Emery Summey and first-year Jamie Shearer tied for fifth place in the event with scores of 9.850.

The championship likely wrapped up what was a very successful season for the Tar Heels, who went 11-2 on the season.

On Monday, the 36 teams that will compete in the NCAA Championship will be announced. In the latest gymnastics rankings, UNC was ranked 40th in the nation. Twelve all-around competitors and 64 individual event specialists who are not on a qualifying team will also be invited.

The NCAA Championships are set to take place in Fort Worth, Texas on April 16 and 17.

Lucas Thomae, staff writer

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