The No. 1 UNC women’s tennis team ensured its place atop the polls would stay intact Sunday afternoon, defeating Louisville in its second straight road match.

Head coach Brian Kalbas shuffled the lineup for the doubles portion of the match, and it paid dividends. Elizabeth Scotty teamed up with Alle Sanford, and Kacie Harvey took the court with Anika Yarlagadda. Both took big wins in their doubles matches to secure the doubles point for UNC. The Tar Heels had dropped the doubles point in each of their last two matches.

As with Friday’s match with Notre Dame, Carolina would end up with a big 6-1 win after the singles portion of the match, but the final scoreline was deceiving. Three singles matches went to three sets. Sanford won her first set 6-3 before dropping the second 1-6. She bounced back to take the third by a 6-2 score. Cameron Morra dropped her first set 4-6, then had to fight through a second-set tiebreak to force a third set super breaker, which she won 10-7. Fiona Crawley won her first set via a tiebreaker, but lost the second 4-6 to force another super breaker. She had no trouble there, winning 10-2.

Yarlagadda and Harvey each won in straight sets to clinch the match for Carolina. The Tar Heels are now 7-0 all-time against Louisville, and improved to 13-0 this season and 2-0 in ACC play. The team will now return to Chapel Hill for the first time since January 29 for a four-match homestand, which begins March 5 against Virginia Tech.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini


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