The North Carolina women’s tennis team swept the ITA Carolinas Regional on Monday following junior Hayley Carter’s 6-3, 7-5 victory in the singles tournament over Clemson’s Joana Eidukonyte.
Carter's win came just a day after the UNC duo of Jessie Aney and senior Kate Vialle won the doubles title 8-3 over Eidukonyte and Theresa Piontek of Clemson at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
Carter reached the singles finals after defeating Wake Forest's Anna Ulyashchenko 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals on Sunday, setting up her showdown with Eidukonyte.
The Carter and Eidukonyte championship match was a battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the singles draw, respectively, and the No. 9 and No. 11 ranked players nationally.
After winning the first set and taking a 4-2 lead in the second, Eidukonyte rallied to seize a 5-4 advantage. But Carter then won three straight games, using pinpoint shots and capitalizing on some of Eidukonyte’s errors to claim the set and the match.
After sealing a win in Sunday's doubles championship, the doubles pair of Aney and Vialle will travel with Carter to Flushing Meadows, New York to compete in the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship starting on Nov. 12.
The second-seeded tandem of Aney and Vialle advanced to Sunday's doubles championship earlier that day with an 8-6 win over South Carolina's Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Ellie Zogg before clinching the doubles crown.
Vialle also won the ITA regional doubles championship as a junior in 2014 with current senior Ashley Dai. Vialle finished in second to Carter and Jamie Loeb as a sophomore in 2013 with then-senior Laura Slater.
