UNC women's tennis shuts out Vanderbilt, Michigan for a pair of top-15 victories

Everyone sat still in their seats – watching, waiting. It was eerily quiet in Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon. The audience’s eyes were trained on Court Two. The majority of the UNC women tennis team’s eyes were trained on Court Two. The coaches’ eyes were trained on Court Two.

All eyes were watching No. 2 Cameron Morra as she was fighting for her sixth and final point to complete the 7-0 clean sweep over Vanderbilt. After an intense back and forth against No. 32 Christina Rosca, a few out of bound balls and a strong return, the crowd erupted. 

Morra was able to clinch the last point to sweep Vanderbilt and secure the No. 2 women’s tennis team’s 26th consecutive win at home. The Tar Heels had a perfect weekend, shutting out two top-15 opponents: No. 10 Michigan on Saturday, 4-0, and No. 13 Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon. 

“They're a team we always want to play because they give us an incredible battle,” head coach Brian Kalbas said about Vanderbilt. “I was pleased through doubles, through singles and really not dropping a set. Really a clean performance by everybody."

But before the cheers, the team had to fight to secure the two victories. Saturday brought a loud, energetic Michigan team.

With the grit shown by Morra and Elizabeth Scotty, who won their doubles match 6-1, UNC took the first step toward picking up a win. The deciding point came from Sara Daavettila and Alexa Graham, who were able to snatch a contested second doubles win, giving UNC an early lead.

The singles matches were another battle. There were early deficits at Court One (Graham) and Two (Morra), and Courts Three (Daavettila) and Four (Scotty) were caught in stubborn ties. 

The Tar Heels held strong, bending but not breaking. Nobody embodied the fighting attitude more than Graham, who came back from multi-point deficits in both sets to finish second in the singles, even coming back from a 5-1 hole to win with seven consecutive points in a row. 

“That girl is tough," Kalbas said. "Similar to how she did yesterday, she got down, but you can never count her out. She's one of our best fighters.”

Sunday's matches presented another challenge, but North Carolina looked stronger after its win over the Wolverines Saturday.

“Michigan made us better for (Sunday),” Kalbas said. “We didn't play great tennis yesterday against Michigan. We played resilient and tough and handled the situation well. Today, we played a lot better."

UNC suffocated Vanderbilt in doubles play on Sunday. The dynamic duo of Morra and Scotty went for the 6-0 shutout and Makenna Jones and Alle Sanford clinched the doubles point with a 6-1 win to remain unbeaten in doubles. 

Sanford dominated Court Four, clinching the first singles point 6-3, 6-0. Just a few moments later, Jones defeated her opponent with an identical score. Graham made another impressive comeback, once again proving that she can never be counted out. She was down 3-1, but eventually won 6-4 in the first set and 6-2 in the second. 

"I have such solid teammates and I just look around and they have so much momentum," Graham said. "So it kind of just inspires you to get it together and fight back." 

@macyemeyer

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