The Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center was packed with fans eager to watch the No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team take on Virginia Tech on Sunday. Fans crammed into bleachers in hopes of seeing talented seniors No. 5 Alexa Graham and No. 6 Sara Daavettila play their singles matches.
But there was much less excitement on the other end of the court, where the teams’ youngest players were playing.
The crowd was overjoyed when Graham and Daavettila clinched the 4-0 win over Virginia Tech with victories in two highly-contested sets. Little did they know that first-year Anika Yarlagadda had been done for about half an hour.
“She got a real quick point for us on the board, and that was great for us,” head coach Brian Kalbas said.
Yarlagadda dominated her competition, winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. She hit excellently all day, frustrating her opponent with terrific ball placement — and by the end the match, her opponent was hanging her head in her towel.
“Everything was just clicking,” Yarlagadda, Michigan's No. 1 high school recruit, said.
Yarlagadda has quietly had a great first season, amassing a 5-1 record in the dual match singles that she has completed and continuing to grow into a more confident player in her first season at UNC.
Despite all this, her record hasn't translated into much acclaim. She was the only singles player for UNC on Sunday to come in unranked. Yarlagadda epitomizes the role of the younger players on a stacked UNC team; they may not get to play in every competition, but each steps up when her name is called.
The core of underclassmen also includes sophomore No. 4 Cameron Morra and first-years No. 81 Kacie Harvey and No. 111 Elizabeth Scotty. Of that group, only Morra is an everyday starter in both doubles and singles play. Despite that fact, she still considers herself a member of the inexperienced group.
