In his sixteenth season with the Tar Heels (12-1, 1-0), Brian Kalbas, head coach of the No. 2 North Carolina women's tennis team, earned his 400th victory at UNC with a 5-2 win in an ACC opener against No. 36 Boston College (9-2, 1-2) on Friday afternoon.
What happened?
Coming out of Tuesday’s matches against UNCG and Appalachian State with 7-0 victories, the Tar Heels came to Chestnut Hill with confidence. Doubles play started with a 6-3 North Carolina victory from the fourth-ranked pair of junior Makenna Jones and first-year Cameron Morra.
Boston College then responded with a 6-4 win over junior Sara Daavettila and sophomore Alle Sanford, but the No. 16 combo of senior Jessie Aney and junior Alexa Graham was able to lock up a 6-3 win to clinch the doubles point for UNC.
No. 5 Graham and No. 27 Morra then began singles play with decisive wins to give the Tar Heels a 3-0 lead. Boston College showed signs of life in the next two matches with wins over No. 6 Daavettila and No. 2 Jones. However, an upset was not to be; the Tar Heels lived up to their No. 2 ranking with victories from No. 122 Sanford and Aney, clinching the 5-2 win.
Who stood out?
Among the day's standouts was Graham, who won the first singles match of the day with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Boston’s Jackie Urbinati. As a junior this year, Graham has a perfect 9-0 record in singles matches and a 20-3 record overall this season.
After a pair of wins against Greensboro and Appalachian State, Morra earned a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Boston’s Natasha Irani. Also impressive was the 16th ranked duo of Graham and Aney, who won the deciding match to keep UNC unbeaten in doubles in 15 straight matches, going back to the 2018 season.
