CARY — The North Carolina women's tennis team had no problems Thursday in its 4-0 shutout of Maryland in the first round of the ACC Tournament — unless you count showing up for the match on time.
At 3:07 p.m. the entire Maryland team stood on the courts at the Cary Tennis Center" already having waited on the Tar Heels for several minutes.
Some Terrapins even began to stand on their tiptoes to catch a glimpse of how far away UNC was from getting there.
""We didn't really know if we were starting yet" Sanaz Marand said. We were in the restroom way over there so we were just coming and walking and someone yelled" ‘Hurry!' So we hurried.""
The scheduled start time for the Tar Heels and the Terrapins was 3 p.m." but a match between Virginia and Boston College went longer than expected causing UNC confusion about how much time it had before its match would begin.
Marand Sophie Grabinski and Katrina Tsang even had to break into a run on their way to the courts so their team wouldn't be penalized for its tardiness.
But once the Tar Heels finally got onto the courts they didn't make many more blunders.
UNC took the doubles point with ease securing two victories from the pairings of Marand-Grabinski and Tsang-Austin Smith by identical 8-2 scores.
In singles play the Tar Heels took the first set on all six courts" and the only drama of the match was guessing which three singles players would finish their matches first and count toward the victory — the match is stopped after one team reaches four points.
""We were looking to stay focused throughout and play a complete match" doubles through singles" coach Brian Kalbas said.
It was better than if we had to practice. I don't think it over-extended us.
""I think we got exactly what we wanted out of it"" and I think it will help us for tomorrow.""
Marand and Laura Reichert were the first two UNC players to complete their singles victories" and the rest of the match became an unofficial race between Tsang and Jelena Durisic.
The two were both on the verge of closing out singles wins and Tsang said she started to scramble for the final win when she got up 5-1 in the second set.
But her opponent didn't cooperate with her effort to pick up the pace" taking her time to set up between points and glancing at action going on elsewhere.
Tsang was just about to serve on match point when Durisic claimed victory and officials stopped the rest of the matches.
""I knew everyone was nearing the finish line. I mean" we'd all like to win and it's a little frustrating being at match point Tsang said.
I was kind of standing at the line waiting" and she just starting stalling at the end.""
Durisic closed out her opponent in straight sets" 6-1 6-2 and made winning her first ACC Tournament match look easy.
Her power and placement were simply too much for Maryland's Maggie MacKeever as she pushed MacKeever all over the court with a collection of winners.
In today's game against No. 3 Clemson Grabinski will play singles after sitting out the teams' meeting in the regular season — a 5-2 Tigers victory.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
With sweep of Terps UNC on to second round
Junior Katrina Tsang helped secure the doubles point and was ready to serve match point when the game was called after UNC went up 4-0.
