Carson Tanguilig's comeback propels UNC women's tennis past N.C. State in ACC semifinals
UNC senior Carson Tanguilig hits the ball during the women’s tennis match against N.C. State on Saturday, March 23, 2025 at Chewning Tennis Center. UNC won 4-3.
CARY — Oh, how she roared.
Fists clenched. Nose scrunched. Eyes narrowed. Carson Tanguilig exclaimed. Through a last-ditch effort to try to save a set point, despite trailing 5-0 in the first. Louder as she stormed back in the second. Then, once more as she powered through the tie-breaking third set.
Ferociously, the senior erupted, letting go of the self-doubt that haunted her in the beginning of the match. Each battle cry willed her to the finish line.
“It’s fun to get into it when you can,” she said.
Tanguilig’s comeback liftedsecond-seeded UNC women’s tennis to the ACC championship match with a 4-1 win over No. 3 seed N.C. State on Saturday afternoon. The senior was instrumental at Cary Tennis Park in securing the doubles point for the Tar Heels, later clinching the team semifinal victory in her singles match.
“Carson is the epitome of fight,” head coach Brian Kalbassaid. “When you have your senior, your leader [and] your captain, never quitting, it adds so much.”
Things looked bleak in Tanguilig’s opening set. She lost five straight games. Her confidence wavered. She couldn’t stop thinking that she was playing poorly.
Between points, assistant coach Hayley Carterpulled her aside. Sure, Tanguilig had a fewdouble faults here and there. She sprayed some shots out of bounds. But Carter said the UNC senior’s mistakes were only a tiny sliver of the story. She told Tanguilig it wasn’t so much about her, but rather N.C. State’s Mia Slama making great plays.
“That took a lot of pressure off me,” Tanguilig said.
She walked back on the court and battled to deuce. And even with her back against the wall and set point on the line, she found a way to win. She did it again. And again.
After winning her third straight game and withstanding a grueling rally to tighten the score to 5-3, she screamed her first, “Come on!” to her entourage of family and close friends behind her. Gone was the quiet Tanguilig once stuck in her own head.
She lost on the next deuce point to end the set, 6-3. But it didn’t matter. Not really. She was gaining momentum. And at the same time, she was learning Slama’s habits and how to exploit them.
Tanguilig figured out how to mitigate Slama’s powerful first serve. Then, she targeted her forehand, focusing on returning balls with a high bounce. It gave her a lot more court to play with. Slama’s backhand was killer. She kept finding angles on the court that were impossible to return. Tanguilig had to avoid it.
“Once I got going in the second, I just felt like I was kind of rolling,” Tanguilig said. “She was just on her back foot constantly."
UNC freshman Susanna Maltby and UNC senior Carson Tanguilig react to a point during the women’s tennis match against Stanford in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at Cary Tennis Park on Friday, April 18, 2025.
She crushed Slama in the second set, 6-1. It was onto the third. The decider.
She couldn’t see the scoreboard. She had no idea how down-to-the-wire the match really was. After taking the opening set, first-year Alanis Hamilton fell apart in the second, and she was struggling to take back control in the third. On court three, sophomore Thea Rabman was neck-and-neck in a third, too. UNC was clinging for dear life to its 3-1 lead.
Although she had the momentum, Tanguilig knew a team like N.C. State was going to change up its game. Slama wasn’t going to come out the same way that she was playing in the last six games. Tanguilig had to be ready for an adjustment.
“I had that unwavering confidence,” she said. “But I had a sense of, ‘I still need to play my game, be disciplined.’”
The UNC senior grabbed a two-game lead out the gate. Slama crawled back to tie it. Tanguilig pulled away again. Then, Slama knotted it up at 4-4.
It was Tanguilig’s serve, this time. She couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. She double faulted on a deciding point during her last service game. She kept overthinking her offense.
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Kalbas reminded her to keep attacking Slama’s forehand side. She honed in on hitting her targets in the box.
Roaring back to life, Tanguilig cranked a forehand winner into the left-hand corner. She pumped her fist at Kalbas.
“Ultimately,” the head coach said, “Every point, she was giving herself and her team a chance.”
Her family and friends exploded into a familiar chant: “C-Money!" It’s a nickname created by former teammate Sophia Patel, originating from Tanguilig’s first year. It has stuck ever since. A gold necklace rests on Tanguilig’s chest with the nickname engraved — another gift from Patel.
“It reminds me of the [national championship] run and the career I’ve had,” Tanguilig said. “It grounds me.”
And like that 2023 NCAA championship match — albeit lower stakes — she clinched it when it mattered most. She stayed grounded. She nailed her backhand slice. Slama hit it into the net.
“Thank goodness,” Tanguilig said.
Then came the roar. A piercing yell of “Come on!” at the top of her lungs.
Caroline Wills is the 2024-25 sports editor. Previously, she served as a senior writer on the sports desk, primarily covering women's tennis, field hockey, and women's basketball.
