Fiona Crawley of the UNC women’s tennis team finished off an undefeated fall season in style, capturing the ITA Fall National Championship in singles Sunday in San Diego. Crawley is just the second Tar Heel ever to win both the ITA Fall title and the ITA All-American title in the same year, and the first woman from any school to do it since 2016.

Crawley’s fall season was dominant: she finished with a 17-0 record in singles while dropping just two sets in those 17 matches. One of those sets came in Sunday’s final, when Crawley defeated Daria Frayman of Princeton 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Crawley had breezed past opponents from Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Denver and Tennessee in the preceding four rounds, all played on consecutive days. She had begun the tournament as the No. 21 seed in singles.

Crawley also played with teammate Carson Tanguilig in the doubles championship that same day, though the pair fell in straight sets to a team from Pepperdine. Anika Yarlagadda also fell in the championship of the consolation bracket.

Three of the last four ITA Fall champions in women’s singles have been Tar Heels: Crawley, Sara Daavettila in 2019 and Alexa Graham in 2020.

The UNC women’s tennis program is officially done with its fall season, and won’t play competitively again until the beginning of the spring season in January.

 

Featured image via ITA


Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.