CARY, N.C.—Chants of “Tar–Heels” roared throughout Cary Tennis Park as No. 1-seed North Carolina had taken the doubles point in relatively easy fashion and was out to a 1-0 lead against No.8-seed Duke in Friday’s ACC tournament quarterfinal. Then, after about 20 minutes of doubles play, the rain came.
In some cases, this could have been seen as a blessing for the Blue Devils. Freshman star Shavit Kimchi had just lost five straight games after leading 5-2 in her first set of singles to Tar Heel senior Elizabeth Scotty. Junior Emma Jackson, playing in the No. 1 slot, led 4-3 against Fiona Crawley before losing three straight games to cede the first set of her match. And on court six, Karolina Berankova had lost 6-3. A reset may have been helpful.
Instead, the match went the other way, leading to a speedy and decisive 4-0 win for North Carolina, sending Duke home just a day removed from its own 4-0 win against Wake Forest in the prior round Thursday.
“Coming [inside], it’s definitely an advantage for North Carolina,” said head coach Jamie Ashworth. “They’ve been one of the best indoor teams the last six years”.
That they are — Ashworth went on to note the Tar Heels’ six indoor championships over the last seven years, and their dominance indoors showed itself when the two teams moved under the tent. Berankova quickly lost her second set to North Carolina’s Tatum Evans right before Kimchi fell to Scotty. Moments later, a scream from court 4 by Anika Yarlagadda marked a victory against Duke’s Katie Codd, and North Carolina had secured a sweep of the match.
When asked about what he saw in the Tar Heels Friday afternoon, Ashworth emphasized their drive.
“They’ve got five seniors, and they’re playing hungry … You can see it through their leadership, just how vocal they are and how much it means, you know those guys have been great for four or five years now,” Ashworth said.
On the flip side, Ashworth noted his team's inability to remain disciplined for the entirety of these long matches.
“We gave ourselves opportunities,” he said. “And I think we've got to be able to stay disciplined as much as we can so we can compete with anybody. We can play with anybody in the country, but it's when it gets to those crucial moments where [it matters what] we do with our decision making. I'm happy with where we are. I think we're playing better than we were two weeks ago. We have another shot, two weeks from today, to play again.”
Duke now looks ahead to the NCAA tournament, though its opponent is yet to be decided. Last year, the Blue Devils fell in the second round to UCLA.
“Two weeks is a long break and we haven't had a two-week break since the middle of February. And so we’ve got to make sure we take advantage of that time and use each other to compete with each other in practice,” Ashworth said of the mindset going into the tournament. “That's the biggest thing; we don't want to lose our competitive edge.”
Ashworth served up another timely reminder for his team: “you gotta get through finals first.”
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