The No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team fell apart in a 5-2 loss to No. 4 Duke with a 5-2, breaking their six match win streak.
What happened?
UNC came into the match with an edge as the only team in the nation to have six singles players in the top-125 this week. The team has also been ranked No. 1 for the last 10 weeks.
The doubles matches started out neck-and-neck. Neither team wavered as they fought its rival. Court Two, home of No. 23 sophomore Sara Daavettila and first-year Alle Sanford, lost 6-3, but Court Three, quickly rallied to level out the playing field. Sophomore Makenna Jones and redshirt junior Marika Akkerman slipped past the Blue Devils with a 6-4 victory.
It came down to duo junior Jessie Aney and sophomore Alexa Graham, who are currently ranked as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation. After being down 5-4 once the other two courts finished, North Carolina weathered long rallies and scrappy hits to reach a tie 6-6, sending the match to a tiebreaker. Aney and Graham came out with a 7-6 victory, with a 7-5 win in the tiebreak, giving UNC the lead heading into singles.
Singles proved to be a challenge for the Tar Heels. Despite having a one-point lead heading into the matches, UNC faltered. Duke took the lead and won four courts in the first set while UNC took two.
While Court One continued to rally to a 7-5 victory in the first set after an hour of play, the Blue Devils got their first point after No. 124 Ellyse Hamlin defeated Chloe Ouellet-Pizer 6-1, 6-2. Aney closely followed on Court Four, falling 6-0, 6-3.
The team continued to fall apart from there. Sanford soon fell 6-1, 6-4 on Court Two, giving Duke a 3-1 lead. The three remaining singles matches headed into a grueling third set as the temperature continued to drop. Duke clinched the win as Akkerman fell in the third set 6-4, 2-6, 2-6. Graham quickly followed suit, pushing Duke’s lead to 5-1.
As the last match slowly winded down, the crowd in Ambler Stadium thinned out and silence fell over the courts, except for the occasional grunt from Court One. Jones headed into a tiebreak and won 7-6 in her third set.
