North Carolina
Duke
No. 8 Tar Heels Fall To No. 2 Duke In ACC Final, 4-2
April 22, 2012 | Women's Tennis
April 22, 2012
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. --- No. 8 North Carolina won a rousing doubles point but could not hold off No. 2 and top-seeded Duke in singles, as the Blue Devils took the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship title with a 4-2 victory Sunday afternoon at the Wake Forest Indoor Tennis Center. Zoe De Bruycker was a singles winner for UNC, but Duke took four matches to deny the Tar Heels a repeat win.
Carolina (22-6) took the early lead thanks to a focused doubles performance. Gina Suarez-Malaguti and Caroline Price rebounded from yesterday's tiebreak loss in impressive fashion, dismissing Annie Mulholland and Hanna Mar on court three, 8-1. On court two, No. 69 Haley Hemm and Tessa Lyons fell behind 7-1 to No. 27 Rachel Kahan and Beatrice Capra before winning four straight games to stay in the match.
Meanwhile, No. 3 Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale raced out to a 5-1 lead over No. 23 Mary Clayton and Ester Goldfeld on court one. Hemm and Lyons finally fell to Kahan and Capra, 8-5, but just moments before Featherston and McHale finished off Clayton and Goldfeld, 8-3, to give Carolina the 1-0 lead in the dual.
The top-seeded Blue Devils (25-2) began their slow climb back in singles with first-set wins on four of six courts. No. 92 Kahan was first to finish, tying the dual at 1 with her 6-1, 6-1 win over No. 97 Featherston at No. 3 singles.
Duke took its first lead of the day thanks to Most Valuable Performer Capra's 6-0, 6-4 win over McHale at the top of the lineup. The match was closer than the score would indicate, however, and McHale stayed on the court long enough for a pair of Tar Heels to split sets on other courts.
The final four matches would all go the distance after Price and Suarez-Malaguti battled back to force a third sets on courts four and five, respectively.
UNC briefly tied the match at 2 thanks to De Bruycker's 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory over No. 111 Goldfeld on court two.
From there, each team needed two of the final three matches to take the dual, but it was Duke that would get those final points. No. 49 Mar completed her 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win over Price on court four to set up Turewicz to score the clinching victory. Turewicz rallied from a set down after losing a tiebreak to Lyons, ultimately winning in three sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.
The loss was just the second in over two months for the Tar Heels, who will now await their NCAA Championship fate. The field of 64 teams will be announced on NCAA.com on Tuesday, May 1, at 5 p.m. with a live webcast.
No. 2 Duke 4, No. 8 North Carolina 2
Doubles
1. #3 Featherston/McHale (UNC) def. #23 Clayton/Goldfeld (DU), 8-3
2. #27 Kahan/Capra (DU) def. #69 Hemm/Lyons (UNC), 8-5
3. Suarez-Malaguti/Price (UNC) def. Mullholland/Mar (DU), 8-1
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1
Singles
1. #2 Beatrice Capra (DU) def. #34 Lauren McHale (UNC), 6-0, 6-4
2. #37 Zoe De Bruycker (UNC) def. #111 Ester Goldfeld (DU), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5)
3. #92 Rachel Kahan (DU) def. #97 Shinann Featherston (UNC), 6-1, 6-1
4. #49 Hanna Mar (DU) def. #94 Caroline Price (UNC), 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
5. Gina Suarez-Malaguti (UNC) vs. #74 Mary Clayton (DU), 3-6, 7-5, 5-6, DNF
6. #88 Monica Turewicz (DU) def. Tessa Lyons (UNC), 6-7, 6-3, 6-2
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2, 4, 6
Players Mentioned
