No. 1 UNC women's tennis slams No. 11 Auburn in 6-1 victory

The No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team (3-0) notched a 6-1 victory over its first ranked opponent, No. 11 Auburn (0-1), Saturday afternoon.

The match this season almost exactly mirrored the meeting between the defending national champion Tar Heels and the Tigers the previous year. In 2023, UNC bested Auburn 6-1 using the same six players. 

Coming off a doubles title at the 2023 ITA Fall Championships, the No. 1 duo of Reese Brantmeier and Elizabeth Scotty did not appear to slow down entering the new year. The one-two punch delivered just that, using Scotty’s length and Brantmeier’s strength to take their set 6-2 and set the tone early for the Tar Heels.

The No. 11 doubles team of Abbey Forbes and Reilly Tran followed suit and clinched their set 6-3. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig — the reigning national doubles champions — were trailing 4-5 against Auburn when the doubles portion was called and the intermission prior to singles commenced.

The No. 44 singles player Scotty was the first to finish her match, edging out her opponent 6-3 and 6-2 with ease. 

The 2023 ITA Player of the Year was quick to follow. Fresh from rubbing elbows with the world’s best after playing overseas with Team USA, Crawley defeated the No. 8 singles player Carolyn Ansari 6-3 in both sets using her quickness and consistency. 

Tran swept her first set and won 6-3 in the second, walking off the court with a smile. 

“It was really fun to have everyone back and just such a family feeling, you know, being around your best friends,” Tran said. “As cliche as it sounds, there’s no better feeling than that.”

After Tran gave UNC a 3-0 advantage, No. 122 Selin Ovunc then gave Auburn its first and last win of the afternoon after escaping a near comeback by No. 41 Forbes. 

Tanguilig claimed a 6-2 victory in her first set, but then allowed for Angella Okutoyi to take the second. The deciding tie-break began 1-4 in favor of Okutoyi. Keeping her cool, however, Tanguilig remained gritty by serving tough and running her opponent into the ground to complete the resurgence and hit the seven point mark first. 

At this point, UNC had already clinched the match victory over Auburn, but No. 5 Brantmeier still played out her second set, eventually falling 7-6 and causing another tie-break. 

Brantmeier found early success on Saturday through a risky style of constantly altering her pace. However, her unranked opponent adjusted to counterattack with long hits and drop shots, taking the tiebreak 7-5. 

Every player then crowded around to view the ultimate 10-point tiebreaker. The silence could only be broken up by the drop of a pin — or by the call-and-response “Tar Heel” chant led by Forbes. 

“Tie-breakers are tough because it’s really a coin flip,” Brantmeier said. “You guys are obviously very close in total points by the time you get to that point, so when it comes down to just ten points it can really go either way.”  

A crouching Brantmeier with her face in her hands at 8-8 demonstrated the emotion of the tie-breaker. Through such fervor, however, a wildly powerful shot by Brantmeier and a wide swing by Auburn gave her the result she had hoped for.

With current victories over Elon, Campbell, and now Auburn, North Carolina moves to 3-0 on the season with challenging indoor matchups ahead.

“You never know, I mean, even at home, how you’re going to perform in the first really competitive match, but it was—from doubles through singles—it was good,” 2023 National Coach of the Year Brian Kalbas said. “I mean, it was really exciting to see. Auburn’s a really talented team.”

UNC is slated to face another SEC opponent in No. 3 Georgia Sunday at 1:00 p.m. in the Cone-Kenfield Indoor Tennis Center. Last year, the Tar Heels swept the Bulldogs 4-0 in the semifinal round before eventually earning their first-ever national title.

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