In the first match for the ITA Kickoff Weekend, the No. 2 North Carolina women’s tennis team (8-0) bested Maryland (3-1), 4-0, on Friday afternoon in Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
What happened?
Each UNC doubles team faced a close battle to open the match. No. 1 junior Fiona Crawley and sophomore Carson Tanguilig defeated Maryland's Marta Perez Mur and Minorka Miranda by a score of 6-4 to win UNC’s first match. No. 5 graduate student Abbey Forbes and No. 48 junior Reilly Tran clinched the doubles point soon after with their own 6-4 victory over Selma Cadar and Mary Brumfield.
Only one Tar Heel lost their first set in singles. Singles victories by No. 58 senior Elizabeth Scotty, Tran and Crawley ended the match and earned the Tar Heels their final three team points.
Tran was the first UNC player to finish her match with a decisive 6-1, 6-0 victory over Brumfield on court six — bringing North Carolina out to a 2-0 lead over the Terrapins.
Crawley dominated her matchup against Maryland’s senior Selma Cadar, only giving up a total of two games in both sets in her 100th career win as a Tar Heel. Shortly thereafter, Scotty clinched the match point with a score of 6-2, 6-3.
Who stood out?
Tran’s victories in doubles and singles were key to the outcome of the match. During the opening games of the match-up, Tran and Forbes pulled away with an early lead. When Maryland began to gain momentum, the duo found a way to finish out the set and secure the doubles point for the Tar Heels.
With Scotty and first-year Reese Brantmeier in the middle of a tough tiebreak, and No. 8 Tanguilig battling it out against Perez Mur, the timing of the Tran/Forbes victory allowed UNC to scrape by with the team point.
