North Carolina
Notre Dame
No. 12 Tar Heels Stumble At No. 5 Notre Dame
February 27, 2009 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 27, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. --- No. 12 North Carolina dropped the doubles point for the first time in 2009 and was unable to recover in singles as the Tar Heels fell to No. 5 Notre Dame, 5-2, Friday afternoon at the Eck Tennis Pavilion. No. 93 Sophie Grabinski and Katrina Tsang notched three-set wins for Carolina (9-3), who will face No. 1 Northwestern on Sunday.
Notre Dame (10-1) took control of the doubles point with a highlight win at No. 1 in a showdown of top-5 national tandems. No. 3 Kelcy Tefft and Kristy Frilling topped No. 4 Grabinski and Sanaz Marand, 8-3, in the first of three doubles wins. Cosmina Ciobanu and Kali Krisik topped Tsang and Austin Smith, 8-4, at No. 2 to give the Irish a 1-0 lead in the match.
No. 59 Tefft downed No. 29 Marand in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 1 to give the Irish a 2-0 lead to open singles play. Wins at the Nos. 3 and 5 positions by Kristen Rafael and Ciobanu sealed the victory for the hosts, with Shannon Matthews topping Laura Reichert at No. 6 to make it 5-0.
Carolina got on the board with a pair of third-set tiebreak victories. No. 93 Grabinski continued her strong senior spring with a come-from-behind 5-7, 6-3, 10-7, win over Krisik at No. 4. Tsang then completed the match with a 3-6, 7-6, 10-5 win over No. 82 Frilling at No. 2.
The Tar Heels will continue their nine-match road trip Sunday by paying a visit to No. 1 Northwestern. That match is set to begin at 1 p.m. ET.
No. 5 Notre Dame 5, No. 12 North Carolina 2
Doubles Results
1. No. 3 Tefft/Frilling (ND) def. No. 4 Marand/Grabinski (UNC) 8-3
2. Ciobanu/Krisik (ND) def. Tsang/Smith (UNC) 8-4
3. Mathews/Rielley (ND) def. Reichert/Fanjoy (UNC) 8-5
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles Results
1. No. 59 Kelcy Tefft (ND) def. No. 29 Sanaz Marand (UNC) 6-3, 6-2
2. Katrina Tsang (UNC) def. No. 82 Kristy Frilling (ND) 3-6, 7-6, 10-5
3. Kristen Rafael (ND) def. Austin Smith (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
4. No. 93 Sophie Grabinski (UNC) def. Kali Krisik (ND) 5-7, 6-3, 10-7
5. Cosmina Ciobanu (ND) def. Jelena Durisic (UNC) 6-4, 6-2
6. Shannon Mathews (ND) def. Laura Reichert (UNC) 7-5, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 3, 6, 4, 2
Players Mentioned
