Volunteers' Rally Sinks Tennis

When the North Carolina women's tennis team rallied, Tennessee rallied harder.

After coming back to win the doubles point and the first singles match, the

No. 6 Tar Heels

(9-3) lost the remaining five singles matches en route to a 5-2 defeat against the No. 9 Volunteers on Wednesday.

The clinching match came at No. 6 seed singles, where Tennessee's Brooke Cordell broke Kristin Koenig's serve at 4-4 in the final set. Cordell proceeded to hold her serve for the 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory.

UNC coach Roland Thornqvist said that the Volunteers' tough play allowed them to grind out the come-from-behind win.

"Aside from talent, they're really scrappy and fight," Thornqvist said. "Last year they completely out-competed us and that was something we didn't want to happen again."

Thornqvist said that a couple of players were competing with injuries: UNC's No. 1 seed Marlene Mejia (pulled muscle) and No. 5 seed Kendrick Bunn (shin splints).

Bunn's shin splints posed a problem against Tennessee's Crystal Cleveland as Bunn could not seal the deal after winning the first set. The injury proved to be the difference because Cleveland sustained long rallies that took their toll on Bunn's shins. Bunn lost in the third set 6-3.

Mejia also lost in three sets to Tennessee's Alison Ojeda.

"I knew (Bunn) was battling with shin problems so obviously the longer the match went on the tougher it was going to be," Thornqvist said. "I think Kendrick is the better player but sometimes you battle too much, and their kid did a good job."

Kate Pinchbeck won the lone singles point for the Tar Heels, beating the Volunteers' Vilmarie Castellvi 6-3, 6-1 to improve to 11-2 in singles play.

"I just played my normal game and let her do what she wanted to do," Pinchbeck said. "I just played well today."

 

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.