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No. 6 UNC women's tennis falls to No. 9 Virginia, 4-3, in first away match of the spring

20240504_Skvoretz_WTENNIS-NCAA-R2-Wisconsin-127.jpg
The UNC women’s tennis team huddles after winning the doubles point during the second-round match of the NCAA tournament against Wisconsin at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Saturday, May 4, 2024. UNC won 4-0.

The No. 6 North Carolina women’s tennis team (3-1) fell to No. 9 Virginia (4-0) on Monday afternoon during UNC's first away match of the season. 

The Tar Heels jumped out early, winning two of the three doubles matches to take the doubles point. In singles, however, Virginia easily took three matches. North Carolina’s pair of sophomores, Tatum Evans and Thea Rabman, won their singles matches to even the score, 3-3.

In the deciding match, first-year Claire Hill fell 6-4 in a tie-breaking set. 

Doubles

UNC first-year Susanna Maltby and senior Carson Tanguilig fell into an early three-game deficit. The Tar Heels battled back to win one game, but they were unable to gain much momentum, ultimately falling 6-1 and giving Virginia their first win of the match. 

After dropping the opening set point, UNC doubles pair Reese Brantmeier and first-year Alanis Hamilton fought back to win four straight games. UVA's Annabelle Xu and Martina Genis Salas fought back to close the gap and decrease North Carolina's lead to one at 5-4. Despite Virginia’s efforts, a hard net shot by Brantmeier ended their match, 6-4, and tied up the doubles score 1-1.

Evans and Rabman were the only UNC team to get the early jump, defeating the Cavaliers in the first game of the set. Their match remained close throughout, with both teams hitting unreachable cross-court groundstrokes. Up one game, Evans and Rabman went on a two-game run to clinch the match, 6-3, and giving UNC the second win it needed to earn the doubles point. 

Singles

In singles, Brantmeier faced Virginia’s Xu. Down two games, UNC's No. 1 singles seed began to take a different approach, moving up to the net every chance she got. It worked in Brantmeier’s favor, giving the Tar Heel her first game win of the match. 

They alternated winning games until Xu ultimately took set one, 6-3. Xu continued to dominate in set two, again defeating Brantmeier, 6-3. 

On court two, UVA’s Elaine Chervinsky gained a quick three-game lead against UNC’s Tanguilig. This trend continued throughout set one, with Tanguilig only able to win a single game before falling, 6-1. Chervinsky swept set two, 6-0.

No. 3 seed Rabman fought back against Virginia’s Karolina Kozakova, taking set one, 7-6, in a tiebreaker. Rabman had an easier time defeating Kozakova in set two, winning with a final score of 6-3.

North Carolina’s Hamilton struggled in both sets, falling to Ziodato 6-2 in set one and 6-1 in set two. 

UNC’s No. 5 seed, Evans, and No. 6 seed, Hill, joined Rabman to win their first sets. Evans swept Genis Salas, 6-3, 6-1. 

Hill edged out Collard, 7-5, but fell in a tiebreaker in the second set, 7-6.

Hill and Collard’s third set was as close as their previous two. But in the end, Collard edged out Hill once again, 6-4.

North Carolina will host No. 22 Alabama at the Chewning Tennis Center on Saturday at 10 a.m.

@marissuttles14

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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