Tar Heels women's tennis team perseveres against Demon Deacons

A torrent of curses flew from the mouth of frustrated North Carolina tennis player Jelena Durisic when she was losing 3-5 to Wake Forest’s Sasha Kulikova.

Her first instinct when down a set is to unleash her aggravation in her native Serbian tongue.

“I’m pretty verbal. You don’t even want to know what I say,” Durisic said. “I don’t think Coach wants to know either. I don’t want to get point violations, but you know, sometimes it’s necessary.”

UNC’s match against Wake was frustrating for both Durisic and Sanaz Marand, who normally anchor the Tar Heels. But on Wednesday, the rest of the team picked up the slack.

UNC (17-3, 4-0 ACC) won the doubles point after thoroughly trampling the Demon Deacons (7-9, 1-3) and went on to take the match 5-2.

In doubles, Katrina Tsang and Shinann Featherston won 8-5, and Marand and Gina Suarez-Malaguti won 8-2.

This is the second time Marand and Suarez-Malaguti have played together in doubles. They were first paired last weekend against Maryland, and coach Brian Kalbas liked the results.

“Today they gelled,” Kalbas said. “Their styles match up well together. We started some different doubles combinations. The two new pairs were off to a good start. That was a real plus for us.”

In the third doubles match, Sophie Grabinski and Durisic annihilated their opposition, 8-1.

“We matched up well with our opponents,” Grabinski said. “(Durisic) and I have been practicing together, and we were really excited. We’re good friends off the court so it’s fun as well.”

Singles play began and key player Durisic lost the set that was frustrating her, 3-6.

“She is definitely not one of those players I prefer to play,” Durisic said. “I wasn’t as focused on certain shots especially since she’s fast. I missed a few I shouldn’t have missed.”

She battled back with determination and composure and won the second set, but went on to lose the tiebreaker, and therefore the match.

Marand, UNC’s top singles player, also lost her match in a tiebreak. For the No. 1 Tar Heels, losing the top two singles matches is somewhat of an anomaly.

“Wake Forest has strong singles players,” Kalbas said. “Their top two girls are really good. But we didn’t so much as struggle as persevere.”

Grabinski, Suarez-Malaguti, Featherston and Zoe De Bruycker all won their singles matches, giving UNC a 5-2 win against Wake.

“We have high expectations of ourselves in the ACC,” Grabinski said. “Our goal this year has been to work hard. We know the harder we play, the more it will pay off. We’re sticking to that.”



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