North Carolina
Stanford
Carolina Falls To Stanford In NCAA Quarters
May 21, 2017 | Women's Tennis
ATHENS, Georgia - Stanford, the defending national champion, outlasted No. 2 seed North Carolina in an NCAA Women's Tennis Championships quarterfinal match that took over four hours to complete on Sunday afternoon at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Stanford, the No. 7 seed, won the always critical doubles point, and picked up three singles wins to garner the 4-2 win over the Tar Heels, who finish the 2017 season with a remarkable 33-3 record, setting a new program standard for wins in a dual-match campaign.
“It was an over four-hour match and we were fighting an uphill battle the whole time, but we competed really hard,” said North Carolina head coach Brian Kalbas. I'm proud of our team, especially the way we never gave up. We were down many points in several matches and we kept fighting. It was really a tribute to our team, the character we have and the mental toughness we continued to have the entire season. Hayley Carter has meant so much to our team and she played an amazing singles match, so it is unfortunate she cannot continue on.”
With the doubles point going to Stanford (25-2), Tar Heel senior and No. 2 ranked Hayley Carter wasted no time in knotting the match at 1-1. It was vintage work by the Hilton Head, South Carolina, product in winning 6-1, 6-0, over #38 Caroline Doyle for her 168th career singles victory.
Carter finishes the dual match portion of the season with an unblemished 28-0 record playing exclusively at No. 1. She also completes her career with a 57-1 all-time record playing No. 1 singles.
The Cardinal answered with back-to-back wins on courts three and two to take a commanding 3-1 lead over UNC. However, there was still plenty of drama left to unfold over the next couple hours.
The most entertaining match of the day occurred on court four between No. 74 Alexa Graham of North Carolina and #90 Caroline Lampl. A slugfest broke out between two powerful hitters that would extend to three sets.
In fact, Graham fought off two championship points when she trailed 5-4 in the third. She rallied for the tying point and would ultimately pull away for a 7-5 win in the third set, cutting the Tar Heel deficit to 3-2.
With only four indoor courts available, lines five and six started much later in the afternoon. No. 100 Makenna Jones faced fellow freshman Emily Arbuthnott on court five, while sophomore Chloe Oullet-Pizer battled another rookie from Stanford, #71 Emma Higuchi.
Jones continued to build momentum for Carolina after Graham's inspirational victory with an opening set, 6-4, victory that gave the team some real hope of making the comeback a reality.
As the Jones match went into a third set, Ouellet-Pizer took the first set, 7-6 (3), pinning the first set loss on Higuchi in nearly three months.
But Jones could not slow down Arbuthnott back over on court five. The Stanford freshman roared back from dropping the first set and won the clinching point for the defending champs - 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Up next for Carolina is the NCAA Singles & Doubles Championship that gets underway on Wednesday in Athens. Carter is the No. 2 singles seed, while Jessie Aney and Sara Daavettila both earned at-large bids into the 64-player field.
Carter and Aney are the No. 4 seed in the doubles draw.
Doubles
1. #39 Emily Arbuthnott/Taylor Davidson (STANFORD) def. #4 Jessie Aney/Hayley Carter (UNC), 6-1
2. #46 Caroline Doyle/Melissa Lord (STANFORD) def. Cassandra Vazquez/Alexa Graham (UNC), 6-1
3. Sara Daavettila/Makenna Jones (UNC) vs. Emma Higuchi/Caroline Lampl (STANFORD), 5-1, uf
Order of FInish: 1,2
Singles
1. #2 Hayley Carter (UNC) def. #38 Caroline Doyle (STANFORD), 6-1, 6-0
2. #28 Melissa Lord (STANFORD) def. #18 Sara Daavettila (UNC), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
3. #54 Taylor Davidson (STANFORD) def. #35 Jessie Aney (UNC), 6-2, 7-5
4. #74 Alexa Graham (UNC) def. #90 Caroline Lampl (STANFORD), 5-7, 6-2, 7-5
5. Emily Arbuthnott (STANFORD) def. #100 Makenna Jones (UNC), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
6. Chloe Ouellet-Pizer (UNC) vs. #71 Emma Higuchi (STANFORD), 7-6 (3), 2-6
Order of Finish: 1,3,2,4,5
Players Mentioned
