Saturday sports roundup: Softball pulls off upset, women's tennis stays undefeated 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.

Women's tennis: UNC 7, Miami 0

The No. 1 UNC women’s tennis team (12-0, 3-0 ACC) opened its Saturday match against the Miami Hurricanes (3-4, 1-2) playing in front of fans for the first time in nearly a year. The Tar Heels earned the doubles point behind a 6-1 victory from Alle Sanford and Reilly Tran. The first singles win for UNC came from No. 79 Elizabeth Scotty, who defeated her opponent, 6-1, 6-1. 

Following Scotty, No. 49 Makenna Jones and No. 120 Fiona Crawly both earned singles victories. On court two, No. 6 Cameron Morra won, 6-3, 6-3, using her signature two-handed forehand to hit a multitude of winners. Finally, No. 4 Sara Daavettila solidified the Tar Heels' 7-0 win over the Hurricanes in her hard-fought singles match. Despite losing the first set in a tie-breaker, Daavettila swept her second set with a score of 6-0 and won her final tiebreaker, 11-9, against No. 2 Estela Perez-Somarriba. 

The Tar Heels will return to action on Sunday at noon against No. 5 Florida State.

Caroline Prendiville, staff writer

Volleyball: Syracuse 3, UNC 2

The UNC volleyball team (8-4, 7-3 ACC) wrapped up its trip to New York with a loss to Clemson (10-6, 4-5 ACC) in five sets, 3-2. 

The match was tightly contested — none of the sets were decided by more than eight points. The Tar Heels jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first two sets. They lost steam with two straight losses, though, allowing Clemson a chance for a comeback in the fifth. In the final set, both teams traded points until the final moments. Senior Emily Zinger tied the set at 13, putting the Tar Heels in position to win at the end, but Clemson closed out with a kill and a service ace to complete the comeback. 

Senior middle blocker and opposite hitter Aristea Tontai stood out for the Tar Heels as she led the team in points 15, service aces 6, total blocks 6, and hitting percentage .333. 

The Tar Heels will head to Atlanta on March 13 and will look to bounce back against Boston College at 2:30 p.m.

Asheebo Rojas, staff writer

Softball: UNC 3, South Carolina 0

The UNC softball team (7-5, 4-1 ACC) defeated No. 17 South Carolina (11-3), 3-0 in its second game of the Carolina Classic. 

Fifth-year pitcher Brittany Pickett held the Gamecock batters — a group that has scored seven or more runs in four of its last five games — to only one hit and zero runs.

Sophomore outfielder Bri Stubbs led the Tar Heels over the plate with two hits in two at-bats. Junior first baseman Kiersten Licea also hit well for UNC, registering two hits in three plate appearances. 

In addition to her strong pitching performance, Pickett registered an RBI that allowed first-year middle infielder Kayla Baptista to score in the first inning. Redshirt senior outfielder Kristina Burkhardt and junior catcher Taylor Greene also hit critical RBIs to extend the Tar Heels’ lead in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively. First-year middle infielder Skyler Brooks scored a run off Burkhardt’s RBI, while Burkhardt scored a run off of Greene’s RBI. 

In all, UNC had 10 total hits in comparison to South Carolina’s one. 

Cooper Metts, staff writer

Softball: UNC 7, Elon 5

The UNC softball team (8-5, 4-1 ACC) took down Elon (2-6) on Saturday afternoon, notching a 7-5 win over the Phoenix in the Carolina Classic.

Earlier in the day, the Tar Heels defeated South Carolina 3-0, and got off to a hot start in the second half of the doubleheader. UNC scored five of its seven runs in the first two innings, and held Elon scoreless for most of the game.

Hannah George was the starting pitcher for the Tar Heels, and carried a shutout into the seventh inning. Elon subsequently scored five runs in the final frame, but Brittany Pickett came in to record the final two outs. 

Junior Kiersten Licea, and redshirt senior centerfielder Kristina Burkhardt led UNC with two RBIs each.

With the win, the Tar Heels continued their good showing from the weekend and earned some much-needed momentum going into full ACC play next weekend.

UNC will take the field against No. 17 South Carolina on Sunday afternoon to close out the Carolina Classic.

Christian Avy, staff writer

Gymnastics: UNC 194.875, William and Mary 190.805

The UNC gymnastics team traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia to face William and Mary on Saturday.

In the Tar Heels' first rotation on the uneven bars, they started strong with two impressive scores attained by sophomore Hannah Nam and junior Emery Summey. UNC progressively scored higher in the rotation, claiming two team-high scores of 9.800 set by first-years Elizabeth Culton and Kate Greene, giving UNC the lead, 48.800 to 48.125.

During the floor routines, senior Lily Dean led the Tar Heels with a 9.900, with Brianna Greenlow and Culton scored right behind her at 9.850 and 9.725, respectively.

UNC excelled at the beam, with Culton anchoring a team-best of 9.800. After dominating the entire meet, the Tar Heels defeated William and Mary, 194.875 to 190.850.

Kaitlyn Schmidt, staff writer

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