Women's tennis notebook: UNC picks up two weekend wins

The No. 1 North Carolina women’s tennis team defeated No. 27 Georgia Tech 4-0 and No. 16 Clemson 4-3 this weekend to raise its record to 19-2 (5-1 ACC).

Here are a few notes from the weekend:

Facing familiar faces

When UNC took on the Yellow Jackets on Friday, sophomore Caroline Price saw some opponents who she’s known for quite some time having grown up in Georgia.

“I’ve been playing with the girls in doubles since I was 10 years old,” Price said. “The girl I played with in singles has been my best friend since I was 10.”

Price, whose father Mark starred for Georgia Tech in basketball during the 1980’s, described the win against Georgia Tech as “rewarding.”

“I grew up a Yellow Jacket fan,” Price said. “I still cheer for them, but of course when we’re playing them I cheer for Carolina. I was looking at Georgia Tech, too, so it’s another reassurance I picked the right school.”

Price’s injury

Price said she has Achilles tendinitis after the N.C. State match a few weeks ago. She aggravated the injury during her match against Clemson.

“I got it from playing a lot,” Price said. “It’s only gotten worse, so we’re just trying to shut me down off court and then try to play through it on court. I’m in a boot, and I don’t get to take it off except when I play.”

Coach Brian Kalbas admitted he’s a little worried about the injury.

“She started the year kind of injured,” Kalbas said. “This one’s a different injury, and I’m a little more concerned because she has to play singles and doubles. We’ve just got to make sure we manage it well and take care of it off the court.”

Team looking for bye

Senior Gina Suarez-Malaguti said Saturday that the team has found new motivation going into the last five matches of the regular season — clinching a bye for the ACC tournament.

At a team meeting last Monday, Kalbas presented that goal as the new motivation for the team to work toward.

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The physical toll of four straight days of matches as opposed to three days makes winning the championship a steep task for those teams without a bye.

Doubles still subject to change

Although UNC employed the same doubles pairings on both Friday and Saturday, Kalbas said he’s not ready to say they’ve stopped trying different combinations.

“The chemistry with those teams is very good,” Kalbas said. “But there’s a lot of players who are very good who aren’t playing doubles. It’s important for us to still find a good chemistry of teams that are going to compete together and work together to be successful.”

“I don’t know if we’re set or not, but it’s always good to have multiple types of combinations. You can’t really ever predict what’s going to happen, and it depends on matchups.”

Other notes:

When Price clinched the match at 4-1, the match could’ve stopped there. UNC and Clemson agreed to play out the last two matches with UNC’s senior Zoe De Bruycker and junior Tessa Lyons still playing.

At the time of Price’s victory, De Bruycker was down 4-6, 6-1, 0-3. She eventually battled to win a couple of games before falling 2-6 in the final set.

Meanwhile, Lyons was down a set 4-6, 5-3 when Price finished her match. She fought to win the set 7-6 (1). Instead of playing an entire third set, the coaches agreed to play a super tiebreak to settle the match. Lyons ended up losing 10-7 to bring the match score to 4-3.