“About a week ago, we kind of got shell-shocked a little bit and didn’t handle our composure and the situation well, and the momentum swung their way,” he said. “Today we were very even-keeled and they were getting frustrated.”
Both North Carolina players and coach were quick to admit that playing at home certainly helped, and the fact that they had played Kentucky so recently made it easier to prepare.
“When (Kentucky) shot up to No. 3 in the rankings, I think that kind of made more of an impression on our players to say, ‘Hey we know we can beat them and this would be a great opportunity for us to play them at our home courts,’” Kalbas said.
The the 14th-ranked doubles team of Mojzis and Cline used the homecourt advantage to help them defeat the 11th-ranked doubles team of Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk, 8-3.
Mojzis and Cline are a dominating duo and are now 6-0 when playing at home.
Another contributing factor to Kentucky’s loss, and one that must have been responsible for much of the Wildcats’ volatility, was the absence of their No. 1 singles player, Aibika Kalsarieva, who was sick.
“That’s always a hard thing to figure out right at the last (minute),” Cline said. “They’re obviously a really good team, but they didn’t really handle it as well as they could have.”
Mojzis maintained that Kalsarieva’s presence wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
“We were coming in very excited,” she said. “Whether their number-one player pulled out or not, I think we had a good chance of beating them.”
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.by al killeffer
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staff writer
As North Carolina’s Caitlin Collins closed out her match against Kentucky’s Danielle Petrisko 7-5 in the third set, Cone-Kenfield Indoor Tennis Center shook with applause — the No. 13 UNC women’s tennis team had just shut out the No. 3 team in the country.
Just a week after losing to the Wildcats 5-2 in the ITA National Team Indoors last Friday, the Tar Heels rebounded with a stunning 7-0 victory Saturday. The victory capped a productive weekend for the team in which they also beat Minnesota 6-1 Friday.
“I definitely believe, and I’m sure anyone can say this about their own team, that we should be in the top 5,” said North Carolina captain Aniela Mojzis. “But doing it is a different story.”
Mojzis, the No. 26 singles player in the nation, dispatched her opponent handily winning in straight sets. Tar Heels Jenna Long and Sara Anundsen, playing in the No. 3 and 4 spots respectively, dominated their Kentucky counterparts in a similar fashion, but not everyone was able to walk off the court so quickly.
After losing 2-6 in her first set, co-captain Kendall Cline rallied to win the next two 6-0, 6-3 while Collins, after being shut out in her first set, came back to win 6-3, 7-5.
“Tennis is a game of a lot of momentum shifts, and you just have to know that going in,” Cline said. “I got down to a 3-0 deficit within five minutes of the first ball being played but (I stayed calm).”
North Carolina coach Brian Kalbas was proud of his team for keeping cool under pressure and staying focused, something on which he says the team has been trying to improve.
“We didn’t get down in any of the matches,” Kalbas said. “(Cline and Collins) lost first sets, but if you looked at their mentality and their focus, you couldn’t tell that they were down.”
While the North Carolina players remained cool under pressure, the Wildcats were extremely volatile. Kalbas said it was a complete reversal of the teams’ first encounter.
“About a week ago, we kind of got shell-shocked a little bit and didn’t handle our composure and the situation well, and the momentum swung their way,” he said. “Today we were very even-keeled and they were getting frustrated.”
Both North Carolina players and coach were quick to admit that playing at home certainly helped, and the fact that they had played Kentucky so recently made it easier to prepare.
“When (Kentucky) shot up to No. 3 in the rankings, I think that kind of made more of an impression on our players to say, ‘Hey we know we can beat them and this would be a great opportunity for us to play them at our home courts,’” Kalbas said.
The the 14th-ranked doubles team of Mojzis and Cline used the homecourt advantage to help them defeat the 11th-ranked doubles team of Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk, 8-3.
Mojzis and Cline are a dominating duo and are now 6-0 when playing at home.
Another contributing factor to Kentucky’s loss, and one that must have been responsible for much of the Wildcats’ volatility, was the absence of their No. 1 singles player, Aibika Kalsarieva, who was sick.
“That’s always a hard thing to figure out right at the last (minute),” Cline said. “They’re obviously a really good team, but they didn’t really handle it as well as they could have.”
Mojzis maintained that Kalsarieva’s presence wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
“We were coming in very excited,” she said. “Whether their number-one player pulled out or not, I think we had a good chance of beating them.”
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
