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.
