With a spot in the Final Four on the line Sunday afternoon, the No. 2 UNC women’s tennis team came up just short against the defending national champion Stanford Cardinal.

Ranked No. 7 entering the NCAA Tournament, Stanford managed to pull out a 4-2 team win over the Tar Heels at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts in Athens, Georgia–in a match which took over four hours to complete.

UNC finishes the year with a record of 33-3–a school record for wins in a single season.

Things went south on Sunday, however, when the Tar Heels failed to pick up the all-important doubles point at the beginning of the match.

Senior star Hayley Carter helped even things up in the team score with a 6-1, 6-0 singles victory over Stanford’s Caroline Doyle–but the Cardinal still had plenty more left in the tank.

Stanford (25-2) reeled off the next two singles victories to take a 3-1 lead, putting UNC in a position where it absolutely had to win each of the next three matches.

Tar Heel freshman Alexa Graham–who faced championship point on two occasions–was ultimately able to fight back for a thrilling three-set victory to chip away at Stanford’s lead.

To close things out, though, Stanford’s Emily Arbuthnott rallied after dropping the first set to UNC’s Makenna Jones–picking up a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory.

This put the Cardinal into the Final Four, while putting an abrupt end to what had been the most successful season in Tar Heel history.

“It was an over four-hour match and we were fighting an uphill battle the whole time, but we competed really hard,” UNC head coach Brian Kalbas said afterward. “I’m proud of our team, especially the way we never gave up.”

Up Next:

UNC will have three players–Hayley Carter, Sara Daavettila and Jessie Aney–competing in the NCAA Singles and Doubles tournaments, which are set to begin on Wednesday.

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