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UNC women's tennis dominates at ITA Championships, sets sights on spring season

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UNC sophomore Carson Tanguilig and UNC junior Fiona Crawley play doubles at the ITA National Championship. Photo Courtesy of ITA. 

Among the eight players who stepped onto the San Diego courts in the women's ITA National Fall Championship singles quarterfinals, three were donning Carolina blue. 

One — junior Fiona Crawley — would go on to win the final match, earning her sixth title of the fall season and picking up her second major victory. But it was the entire team's success that highlighted the Tar Heels' potential heading into the spring season. 

“To me, what stands out for our program is how well everybody did this fall,” head coach Brian Kalbas said. “(I’m) really proud of the whole team in general.”

At the beginning of October, UNC placed three players in the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships, which Crawley went on to conquer. This milestone was one of the first markings of potential greatness for the current team — something that only seems to continue growing. 

After falling in the first round of the tournament to Georgia Tech’s Carol Lee, UNC senior Anika Yarlagadda responded by advancing to the consolation finals before ultimately losing to Duke’s Chloe Beck. Additionally, sophomore Carson Tanguilig and graduate Abbey Forbes also made runs to the quarterfinals. 

But once again, the defining performance was that of Crawley, who maintained her undefeated singles record to take down Princeton’s Daria Frayman and secure yet another trophy.

Frayman is a player who tries to extend matches as long as possible and relies on her extreme consistency in these long stints. This was something that Crawley was anticipating after having watched Frayman's three-and-a-half-hour semifinal showdown the day before. 

Despite dropping the second set, Crawley persevered and eventually took down the top-ranked senior, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

“In the third set I kind of just tried to clear my mind and be like, ‘Okay, completely new set, it doesn't matter what happened in the first set, it doesn't matter what happened in the second set, six more games and that's it,'” Crawley said. 

After battling for nearly three hours, Crawley’s mental toughness finally paid off. But this victory wasn't the end of the road for her — or even the end of the day — as she still had to fight for the doubles title with Tanguilig. 

The duo of Tanguilig and Crawley had used their strong personal connection to qualify for the tournament by winning ITA Regionals, beating out top-seeded N.C. State and two strong Duke teams. Their kinship is evident on the court, as they can frequently be overheard encouraging one another and high-fiving after each point. 

“Their chemistry, their camaraderie — they thoroughly love playing with each other, and their styles complement each other really well,” Kalbas said. 

Prior to October, they had only ever played together one time in competition. To an outsider though, this would be impossible to tell, as they appeared to be a polished unit and progressed through the first four rounds rapidly. 

Ultimately, the pairing came up just short in its quest for the doubles title, losing to Pepperdine’s Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, 6-2, 7-6. This setback is only minor in the view of Crawley though who looks forward to seeing what they can accomplish as a potential pair in the upcoming season. 

“This being the first season that we’ve played together we have a lot to look forward to and a lot to learn from so I’m really excited,” she said. “I love being on court with Carson so much — she continues to amaze me.”

With the culmination of the fall season, the team has begun to look toward conference play. With such a solid run in the fall, expectations are beginning to swirl about the possibilities of a long-awaited team NCAA championship — something that has evaded North Carolina up to this point. 

“Our team is probably the most connected and unified (it’s been) — we’re 10 players strong,” Kalbas said. “Now it's all about the team and we’ll see what we can do come January time.”  

@PeaceGwen 

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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Gwen Peace

Gwen Peace is the 2023-24 assistant sports editor at The Daily Tar Heel. She has previously served as a senior writer. Gwen is a sophomore pursuing a double major in media and journalism and peace, war and defense.