The No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team (4-0) routed No. 3 Georgia (0-1), 7-0, in an early season ranked contest, Sunday afternoon at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.
“We are prepping for [the ITA indoor championship] but in my eyes, everything is a prep for May,” graduate Abbey Forbes said.
The Tar Heels got on the board early during doubles play. While No. 23 junior Carson Tanguilig and senior Fiona Crawley escaped No. 15 Guillermina Grant and Mai Nirundom in a 6-2 victory, No. 1 sophomore Reese Brantmeier and senior Elizabeth Scotty were confronted with a battle that continued down to the last game point.
Although the duo won the first point without ever allowing Georgia to gain ground, No. 58 Aysegul Mert and Dasha Vidmanova got to work after that. After UGA won the next game, the match turned into a chase. For every point the Tar Heels gained, the Bulldogs would tie it in the next game.
With the score at 5-4 and the current game favoring UNC at 40-15, the Tar Heels had the chance to win the match. After failing to respond to an ace that put the Bulldogs closer to tying once again, the Tar Heels responded by placing a ball directly down the center far to the left of the closest available Georgia player. Refusing to let UGA tie it once again, the No. 1 duo secured the set to help North Carolina take the doubles point.
“Overall, it was very short points, very dominant on both sides and whoever could get the break would definitely win given that it’s just to six,” Scotty said.
Coming off of an impressive doubles win, Crawley opened with the same aggression in singles play against No. 30 Vidmanova. Through the first five games, Crawley only gave up one game point. Although Vidmanova went on a two-game winning streak to make the score 5-3 in the first set, Crawley put her efforts to shame and won the next game to take the first set 6-3. In a similar fashion to the first, Crawley won the second set 6-2 to win the first singles point for UNC.
Following in her footsteps, No. 28 senior Reilly Tran handled No. 108 Nirundorn in a dominant showing. After winning the first set 6-3, Tran refused to relent in the second. Through four games, she only gave up one point before winning the next three in a row to take the set and match 6-1.
Unlike her teammates, No. 5 Brantmeier was challenged in the second set of her match against No. 35 Alexandra Vecic. After winning the first set 6-3, she struggled to close in the second set. After taking a 40-0 lead for the match point, Brantmeier was unable to maintain the lead and Vecic won the game and tied the set 5-5. While Vecic crept up on the blue-clad player, Braintmeier went on a tear to win the set and match 7-5.
