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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC women's tennis finds doubles success in Kitty Harrison Invitational

The UNC women’s tennis team hosted the 13th annual Kitty Harrison Invitational this weekend. North Carolina performed well in doubles play — winning four of its six matches — but disappointed in singles.

What happened?

On the first day of competition, the Tar Heels won two doubles matches. Sophomore Chloe Ouellet-Pizer and redshirt senior Rachael James-Baker had a commanding 8-1 win over Elon. Later on, juniors Cassandra Vasquez and Maggie Kane defeated Penn State 8-3.

UNC struggled in singles, however. North Carolina dropped three of its four singles matches on Friday — with the team’s only win coming from James-Baker.

Saturday brought similar results. UNC won both of its doubles matches, but again struggled in singles play. Oullet-Pizer and James-Baker beat Texas Tech’s Felicity Maltby and Gabriel Talaba 8-7(5) in a back-and-forth match decided by a tiebreaker.

Vasquez and Kane won in doubles, and Ouellet-Pizer was the only Tar Heel to win a singles match that day, defeating Maryland’s Ekaterina Tour (6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (12-10)).

Four Tar Heels competed in singles matches against the University of Virginia on Sunday. It was UNC’s best day of singles play — as James-Baker won her second singles match (6-1, 6-3) and Cassandra Vasquez won her first of the weekend (6-3, 6-1).

Ouellet-Pizer and Kane both lost their singles matches on Sunday.

Who stood out?

Rachael James-Baker proved to be the Tar Heels’ best player in the match. James-Baker and her doubles partner Chloe Ouellet-Pizer went 2-1 over the weekend. Their only loss came against Penn State, and that match went to a tiebreaker (8-7(7)).

While her teammates stumbled, James-Baker showed both consistency and versatility. She went 2-1 in singles play and was responsible for half of the team’s singles wins.

Oullet-Pizer and junior Cassandra Vasquez each won a singles match, too.

When was it decided?

Entering the final day of the tournament, UNC had won 4 of 6 doubles matches and needed a strong performance in singles to salvage a decent overall showing in the Kitty Harrison Invitational.

North Carolina had only won two of its first eight singles matches. The team had gone 1-3 on Friday, and 2-2 on Saturday. UNC was able to improve Sunday, winning three of four matches and bringing the weekend singles record to 6-9.

Although the improvement was minimal, it was a solid way to end what had been a disappointing weekend in singles.

Why does it matter?

North Carolina’s success in doubles was evident. James-Baker and her younger teammate Ouellet-Pizer meshed well. Juniors Vasquez and Kane had a good weekend, too.

Both doubles teams went 2-1, and each team’s only loss came in a tiebreaker. Perhaps the most promising takeaway from this weekend is that UNC was just two 10-point tiebreakers away from finishing the Kitty Harrison Invitational with a perfect 6-0 doubles record.

When do they play next?

The women’s tennis team will transition from individual events to team competition, which begins in January.

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@chapelfowler

sports@dailytarheel.com