UNC women's tennis wins ITA Kick-off, qualifies for Indoor Championships

The No. 2 North Carolina women’s tennis team qualified for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship for the fifth consecutive year by winning the ITA Kick-off Weekend on Friday and Saturday.

In the first match of the weekend, the Tar Heels took on Auburn and came out 4-0 winners. The No. 6 doubles team that consists of seniors Sara Daavettila and Alexa Graham defeated the No. 9 Tigers duo, 7-5. 

On the singles side of the match, No. 4 Daavettila and No. 8 Graham also earned victories along with first-year Elizabeth Scotty. However, head coach Brian Kalbas knew that his players were capable of even more.

“I don’t think we played unbelievable, great tennis, but we were able to get the rust off,” Kalbas said. “This weekend was the first two matches where we’ve really been tested and been competitively pushed.”

That second match came on Saturday against Old Dominion, who pushed the Tar Heels hard before they eventually came away with a 4-1 victory.

After defeating the Monarchs in doubles, UNC encountered tough opposition in the singles rounds. No. 2 Cameron Morra suffered an upset loss to ODU’s No. 47 Holly Hutchinson in straight sets, putting the teams on equal footing. 

However, big performances from Daavettila and Graham saw each of them win their matches 6-3, 6-3 and 7-5, 6-1, respectively, to give the Tar Heels a 3-1 overall lead. Graham’s match was especially notable, as she fell into a 3-0 hole during the first set. Her energetic comeback victory, supported by a loud crowd at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, now makes her fifth on UNC’s all-time singles victory list with 121 wins.

“Today, we played a really good team and I think that all six courts played really well,” Graham said. “Once someone gives me energy or I hear people cheering, it gets me excited. It’s college tennis, so it’s part of the fun.”

The clinching victory came from senior Makenna Jones, who had helped the team to its doubles victory earlier. In singles, Jones cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set, but then found herself tied 6-6 with her opponent after the second. With a big push, Jones was able to win the tiebreaker 5-3, giving her a 7-6 victory and winning the match for the Tar Heels.

“We knew we were going to get a tough shot from Old Dominion, they’re very feisty and very excited to play,” Jones said. “I think it’s good for a lot of my team to see that when things get tough, you have to keep fighting. For me, it makes me proud of myself knowing that, no matter what, I’m going to keep fighting.”

Despite their victories this weekend, Jones knows that there is room for improvement always and that they will have to keep working if they want to carry their success forward. The Tar Heels will take on two formidable opponents before traveling to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.

“Michigan and Vandy are two of the top 20 teams in the country,” Kalbas said. “That’s going to be a great challenge for us heading into Indoors and that’s why we scheduled it.” 

Jones said that those matchups are exactly what UNC needs heading into such a competitive event.

“I don’t think we were really on our A-games (against Auburn), so the good thing is that we have room to improve,” Jones said. “It’s good to face some adversity going into Indoors because we’re gonna see a lot of crazy matches and scores… It’s good to really have some challenges like that to get us prepared.”

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