North Carolina
Notre Dame
Fighting Irish Top Tar Heels 5-1
February 12, 2006 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 12, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The No. 10 North Carolina Tar Heels took on the No. 22 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Sunday in a tough battle, with the Tar Heels suffering their second loss of the season, falling 5-1. Carolina is now 7-2, while Notre Dame moved up to 4-0.
North Carolina lost the doubles point after dropping two matches out of the three. The No. 50-ranked duo, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, of Meg Fanjoy and Austin Smith suffered its sixth loss of the season. The duo fought hard against Notre Dame's Lauren Connelly and Kristina Stastny, but fell 8-6.
The biggest upset of the day came at the No. 1 seed. The junior tandem of Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long, ranked No. 11 nationally, defeated Notre Dame's Catrina Thompson and Christian Thompson; the Fighting Irish duo is ranked first in the nation in doubles. Anundsen, a native from Littleton, Colo. and Long, a native from Fremont, Calif., won a hard-fought match over Thompson and Thompson, defeating the duo 8-3. The All-America twins are now 8-2 on the season, while Anundsen and Long improved their record to 16-9.
Head coach Brian Kalbas was extremely proud of the duo's performance against the tough competition. "We are so proud of them. To beat the number one duo in the country and really outplay them is incredible. They played a very complete match and we are very proud of them."
Anundsen won the only singles match for the Tar Heels, after defeating Brook Buck, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. With the win, Anundsen gave Carolina the only point in the loss to Notre Dame. No. 46 Caitlin Collins competed hard against Notre Dame's No. 44 Christian Thompson at the second seed, but fell in the third set, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6.
"We are proud for the team fighting hard," said Kalbas. "They competed against a tough team and never gave up. After this loss, it is going to be good for us to get better because we saw we competed hard throughout the entire match."
The Tar Heels are back in action Saturday, Feb. 18, hosting Texas A&M at 10:00 a.m. and Elon at 4 p.m. at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
No. 22 Notre Dame 5, No. 10 North Carolina 1
Doubles:
1. No. 11 Sara Anundsen/Jenna Long (UNC) d. Catrina Thompson/Christian Thompson (ND) 8-3
2. No. 35 Brooke Buck/Kelcy Tefft (ND) d. Caitlin Collins/Tanja Markovic (UNC) 8-4
3. No. 45 Lauren Connelly/Kristina Stastny (ND) d. No. 50 Meg Fanjoy/Austin Smith (UNC) 8-6
Order of finish: 1, 2 ,3
Singles:
1. No. 24 Catrina Thompson (ND) d. No. 28 Jenna Long (UNC) 7-5, 6-4
2. No. 44 Christian Thompson (ND) d. No. 46 Caitlin Collins (UNC) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 *
3. Sara Anundsen (UNC) d. Brook Buck (ND) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
4. Kelcy Tefft (ND) v. Austin Smith (UNC) 6-3, 4-6, 3-5 (aban.)
5. Kristina Stastny (ND) d. Tanja Markovic (UNC) 7-5, 7-6 (7-2)
6. Katie Potts (ND) d. Charlotte Tansill (UNC) 6-2, 6-0
Order of finish: 6, 1, 2, 5, 3
*Clinched the match
Players Mentioned
