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Tennis

No. 1 North Carolina has its way with Syracuse, 6-1

Max Freund | Staff Photographer

Knutson was SU's lone bright spot, knocking off the No. 8-ranked player in the country.

By KJ Edelman

No. 1 North Carolina (14-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) handed Syracuse (9-2, 2-2) its second loss of the season in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Sunday. SU’s lone point came from No. 18 Gabriela Knutson, who defeated her second ranked opponent in three days.

The No. 19 doubles pairing of Knutson and Miranda Ramirez struggled against No. 9 Jessie Aney and Alexa Graham in the first slot, losing 2-6. Knutson and Ramirez’s defeat marks their first loss in doubles this season after winning seven straight.

After a simultaneous loss in second doubles from SU’s Dina Hegab and Masha Tritou against No. 20 Sara Daavettila and Alle Sanford, the Orange dropped its first doubles point since Feb. 9. Sofya Golubovskaya and Anna Shkudun were up 4-1 in their doubles match versus UNC’s Makenna Jones and Marika Akkerman when the match was ended early.

To open up singles, No. 28 Daavettila clobbered Ramirez in second singles, 1-6, 0-6, to give UNC its second point of the game. Sunday’s match against Daavettila marked Ramirez’s worst performance of the season, winning one game in two sets.

Shkudun fell to No. 93 Graham in fourth singles, 2-6, 0-6, while Libi Mesh lost to No. 32 Aney in the fifth slot, 2-6, 3-6, to clinch the match for UNC.



Hegab opened up her singles match against UNC’s Chloe Ouellet-Pizer by splitting the first six games in set one. After dropping three of the next four games, Hegab ultimately fell to Ouellet-Pizer, 4-6, 3-6.

After picking up a win against Virginia Tech’s No. 61 Natalie Novotna on Friday, No. 18 Knutson looked to add to her strong resume against UNC’s No. 8 Sanford. The match came down to tiebreaks in both sets. Knutson, who split two tiebreakers in Friday’s match, came up clutch and fought off Sanford in two sets, 7-6, 7-6, to put the Orange on the board. With two victories against top 100 players this weekend, Knutson’s ITA ranking will improve.

Golubovskaya took the first set against No. 15 Jones, 6-2, in her first match against a ranked opponent in her collegiate career, but fell behind in the second set. With the overall match clinched for the Tar Heels, Golubovskaya’s singles match went to a super tiebreaker in the third set. After falling behind 4-10, Golubovskaya gave UNC its sixth point of the day in a convincing loss, 6-2, 5-7, 0-1 (4-10).





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