Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
The UNC women capped a perfect opening to their new home.
The nation’s top-ranked women’s tennis team (31-1) bounced back from its only loss of the season (to N.C. State in the ACC finals) and swept through the NCAA regional rounds by blanking Charleston Southern Friday and Old Dominion Saturday at their new hidden home, the spectacular and unparalleled Chewning Tennis Center.
You will get another chance to see it this weekend, as the Tar Heels host the Super Regional against Florida at the state-of-the-art, $17-million facility that beat the odds and opened the last month of the regular season.
Located well behind the Friday Center and named for the family of former Carolina tennis player Tom Chewning, it has six pristine hard courts, plus six more for practice, and refurbished indoor courts and locker rooms for the women’s and men’s teams. Elevated spectator sections of light blue chair backs are along both baselines, and each court has an electric scoreboard tracking the matches.
In both the first and second rounds, the Tar Heels jumped in front by methodically winning the doubles point, and from there it was a race in the six singles to get the clinching three points to win 4-0, which left three matches unfinished with the Tar Heels in great shape to win them all.
The diversity of Brian Kalbas’ latest dynasty entry, which will now play for UNC’s 13th consecutive trip to the 8-team NCAA championships, is stunning. In the doubles matches both days, the Elizabeth Scotty/Carson Tanguilig and Reese Brantmeier/Reilly Tran duos won easily.
The onslaught continued into singles, where No. 2 Fiona Crawley and No. 6 Tran won in straight sets before fourth singles Abbey Forbes clinched the first round with another two-set win over Charleston Southern. Twenty-four hours later, Crawley and Anika Yarlagadda again won in straight sets before Tran in fifth singles set off the celebration sending an appreciative partisan crowd home happy.
Not only are the Tar Heels of all ethnicities and hometowns, their body sizes – from lithe, 5-foot-6 Crawley of San Antonio to Raleigh’s full-framed 5-9 Forbes – all pack amazing arrays of power and finesse.
In the men’s regional also at Chewning, Sam Paul’s 14th-ranked Heels rallied after losing the doubles point to beat Drake, 4-1, Saturday. The Heels then swept a tough Utah team Sunday to advance to their ninth consecutive round of 16 against top-seeded Texas in Austin this Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini
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