The third-seeded UNC women’s tennis team avenged one of its only three losses this season in Sunday’s ACC Tournament Final at the Cary Tennis Center, knocking off the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils 4-2 to clinch its third consecutive league title.
UNC becomes the first team to win three straight ACC championships in the sport since Georgia Tech accomplished the feat from 2005-2007. It also represented the 600th career victory for Tar Heel head coach Brian Kalbas.
“This year has been such a team effort. Great work ethic, great chemistry and great effort all season,” said Kalbas. “This one feels really special also because we’ve never beaten Duke in the ACC’s in my time at Carolina.”
To get the elusive victory, the Tar Heels had to once again battle back from losing the doubles point–something that happened in all three of their matches in the tournament.
The tournament’s Most Valuable Player–UNC sophomore Makenna Jones–got the Tar Heels on the scoreboard with a dominant straight sets victory (6-1, 6-0) over No. 6 Samantha Harris.
Duke picked up the next point to take the lead back, but UNC rallied to take the overall win with three consecutive singles victories from Chloe Oullet-Pizer, Alle Sanford and Sara Daavettila.
“I love this team,” Kalbas said. “To see us battle back from losing the doubles point in every match this weekend. They have such an incredible work ethic and an attitude about themselves.”
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The Tar Heels will now wait to find out their NCAA Tournament destination, which will be decided in the next few days.
Photo via UNC Athletics
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