No. 1 women's tennis nabs ACC season title, stays undefeated

After securing the ACC regular season title the day before, the North Carolina women’s tennis team had a chance to make history on Sunday.

It only took 2 hours and 42 minutes to do so.

The No. 1 Tar Heels (24-3, 11-0 ACC) defeated No. 15 Florida State (12-9, 6-4) 4-0 Sunday to become the first ACC team since the expansion to 12 schools in 2006 to finish the season undefeated in ACC play.

“We clinched it, but we just wanted to win it outright and go 11-0,” senior Sanaz Marand said. “We just focused even more and tried to finish it off.”

Sunday’s shutout win came after a tight 4-3 victory against No. 11 Miami on Saturday. The victory against the Hurricanes gave the Tar Heels their first regular season ACC title since 1987.

The Tar Heels began Sunday’s match as the ACC regular season champions and wanted to secure their place in the record books. But coach Brian Kalbas was more concerned with keeping morale strong after winning the title.

“I wanted to make sure we didn’t come in with a letdown after yesterday’s match and clinching the ACC regular season,” Kalbas said. “I wanted to make sure they were motivated in the right direction.”

The Tar Heels started off strong Sunday, clinching the doubles point with victories from seniors Marand, Katrina Tsang and Sophie Grabinski in their final match at home.

The tandem of Marand and Tsang, the team’s top two players, turned in a commanding 8-1 victory. But Kalbas said he was hesitant to risk playing his two best players together.

“We’ve kind of kept away from doing that, playing them together,” Kalbas said. “But we have so much depth this year that lately we’ve been putting them together, and they really complement their games really well.

“They really set the tone for us going into doubles, getting up 7-0 and putting a lot of pressure on their opponents. It was exactly what we needed coming into this match today.”

Marand and Tsang continued their dominance into singles play. The seniors won their respective matches in straight sets, and Tsang’s hard-fought 6-2, 6-4 victory against opponent Katie Rybakova sealed the victory for the Tar Heels.

Tsang’s win not only clinched the match for the Tar Heels but also ended it. The two teams agreed to end the match after the decisive fourth point because of Florida State’s travel plans.

The decision cut short one doubles match and three singles matches, including two tight matches.

As Tsang and Rybakova were shaking hands across the net, junior Jelena Durisic was locked in a second-set tiebreaker, and freshman Gina Suarez-Malaguti was just beginning the third set of a back-and-forth match.

Though the match was cut short, Kalbas said it was a good opportunity to practice for the team’s upcoming postseason tournaments, where matches are stopped after the fourth point is won.

“I think it might be a good way to kind of prepare them to make sure they stay focused on their court and don’t get distracted,” Kalbas said.

“At this point in the season, you don’t need much match experience, you’re trying to save yourself, so I was fine with it.”

The top-seeded Tar Heels will receive a bye in the ACC Tournament to kick off postseason play. North Carolina will face the eighth or ninth seed in the quarterfinals on Friday.



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