The match was close down to the final point.
In a clash of top-10 teams, the No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team was edged by No. 7 Vanderbilt, 4-3, on Sunday for its first loss of the season.
The match was tightly contested from the start in doubles play. After the Commodores won on Court Three, 6-4, the Tar Heels (12-1) battled into two tiebreakers for the doubles point on Court One and Court Two. Duo Jessie Aney and Alexa Graham got out to a 5-2 flying start, then dropped four straight games and were faced with a potential loss.
On Court Two, Sara Daavettila and Alle Sanford came all the way back from a 5-1 deficit, winning five straight games to push one final point.
“We kind of forgot we were down 5-1," Daavetilla said. "We didn’t really think about it."
In the end, both doubles teams pulled out 7-6 wins. A powerful Sanford ace put the exclamation point on the rally, and gave the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead in the match.
From there, the competitive tone was set for the singles matches.
The first two singles matches to finish gave the Commodores a 2-1 lead. No. 32 Aney struggled, losing 6-3, 6-2, and No. 8 Sanford lost 6-3, 6-4, dropping nine straight games.
Graham evened the score next for the Tar Heels, winning 6-3, 6-4. With the score 2-2, the match became a best of three — two wins would equal a team victory.