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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC women’s tennis breezes past Syracuse, 6-1, to improve to 14-1 on season

Alexa Graham N.C. State

Sophomore Alexa Graham follows through after a hit against N.C. State on Feb. 21 at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.

The North Carolina women’s tennis team (14-1, 3-0 ACC) breezed past Syracuse (9-2, 2-2 ACC) on Sunday morning, winning 6-1 in Chapel Hill.

What happened?

The No. 1 Tar Heels saw everything go right from the beginning, winning the first six points of the match.

UNC won two out of the three double matches, as No. 9 Jessie Aney and Alexa Graham beat No. 19 Gabriela Knutson and Miranda Ramirez, 6-2 and No. 20 Sara Daavettila and Alle Sanford crushed Dina Hegab and Maria Tritou, 6-0 to earn the one doubles point of the day. The third doubles match did not finish.

Continuing on the same winning trend, junior Chloe Ouellet-Pizer defeated Higab 6-4, 6-3. No. 32 Jessie Aney followed by beating Libi Mesh 6-2, 6-3 and No. 93 Graham dominated Anna Shkudun 6-0, 6-0 to give the Tar Heels the next three points of the day.

No. 15 Makenna Jones faced some trouble in her match against Sofya Golubovskaya, dropping the first set 6-2. However, Jones bounced back, winning the second set 7-5 and winning the tiebreaker to bring home the Tar Heels’ fifth point.

The second to last match of the day didn’t provide much excitement as the outcome of the day was sealed with UNC’s commanding 4-0 lead. Also, Daavettila dropped just one set throughout the entire match winning 6-1, 6-0 over Ramirez.

But Syracuse did not come with away with nothing.

In what was the surprise of the day, No. 18 Knutson defeated No. 8 Sanford in two nail-biting sets 7-6, 7-6 in the first and only Orange win of the day.

Who stood out?

Aney and Graham both performed well, winning their doubles match and then each winning their singles matches. Daavettila and Sanford won their doubles match, finishing after Aney and Graham. Daavettila also won her singles match, but Sanford was unable to defeat her opponent, getting the lone loss for the Tar Heels on the day. Jones fought from one set down to defeat her opponent in her singles match.

When was it decided?

The match was never in doubt, as UNC took the first five points of the day in quick fashion. Jones sealed the win with a tie-breaker victory in her singles match.

Why does it matter?

After losing for the first time last Sunday, the Tar Heels have bounced back with two straight wins in ACC play. UNC now gets a much-needed break before competing again on March 16.

When do they play next?

The Tar Heels will not be in back in action until they travel to Florida to face Miami on March 16 in Coral Gables at 4 p.m.

@rytime98

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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