The North Carolina women's tennis team had six players compete in the ITA Carolina Regionals from Oct. 24-28, with No. 12 sophomore Cameron Morra winning the Main Draw Singles Championship in straight sets. UNC also had three pairs compete in the Main Draw Doubles, two making it to the quarterfinals.
What happened?
Four Tar Heels — Morra, No. 110 junior Alle Sanford, first-year Kacie Harvey and sophomore Sophie Patel — all advanced through the first round of the tournament. Morra defeated Clemson's Ali Despain 6-3, 6-0, Sanford finished Alexandra Abele from Davidson 6-1,6-0, Harvey beat Marta Gonzalez-Ballbe from N.C. State 6-2, 6-3 and the unranked Patel upset No. 94 Mackenzy Middlebrooks from Clemson 6-4, 6-2.
In the second round, Morra, Sanford and Patel all won their matches, while Harvey was defeated in two sets by No. 18 Meible Chi from Duke. Morra defeated Saby Nihalani from Wake Forest 6-3, 6-3 and Sanford advanced past UNC-Greensboro's Erika Barquero 6-2, 6-1. Patel lost her opening set to Wake Forest's Mary Meredith, before rallying to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the round of 16, Patel was knocked out No. 8 Anna Rogers from N.C. State 6-1, 6-4. Sanford upset No. 84 Adriana Reami from N.C. State and Morra defeated fellow Wolfpack player, No. 83 Lexi Keberle 6-3, 6-2. Sanford would fall in the quarterfinals to the No. 5 Kelly Chen from Duke 6-1, 6-1, but Morra advanced to the next round by defeating No. 49 Mia Horvit from South Carolina, 7-5, 6-0.
In the semifinals, Morra won in a close two sets, 6-3, 6-4 against Carolyn Campana, the No. 88 player in the country from Wake Forest. In the final, the UNC sophomore matched up against Chen and avenged her fellow Tar Heel's defeat. A faceoff between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the tournament, Morra won again in two sets, 6-1, 6-4, to claim the Main Draw Singles Championship.
In doubles, two UNC teams, Sanford/Yarlagadda and Jones/Morra, made it to the quarterfinals where both were defeated. Sanford/Yarlagadda dropped the match against Silvia Chinellato/Emma Shelton from South Carolina 8-5 and Jones/Morra were defeated by Julia Adams/Madison Dillon from Furman, 8-3.
Who stood out?
Morra tore through her competition. The reigning ACC Freshman of the Year and ACC Championship MVP was never forced into a third set the entire tournament. This was the sophomore's second ITA Regional title after winning the doubles championship last year with senior teammate Makenna Jones.
