UNC Women's Tennis: Jones/Scotty Reach National Championship; Daavettila Falls in Semifinal
ORLANDO – On Thursday afternoon, Makenna Jones and Elizabeth Scotty accomplished something achieved only one previous time by a UNC doubles team – advance to the NCAA national championship match. The fourth-seeded Tar Heel duo defeated No. 12 Alana Smith and Anna Rogers of NC State 6-3, 6-4.
Both teams struggled to hold serve down the stretch, but the Tar Heels were able to do just enough to pull out the second set and avoid the anything-can-happen 10-point third set tiebreaker.
In the final, Jones and Scotty will face off against the Texas pair Kylie Collins and Lulu Sun (No. 19). The Carolina women will be looking to exact a measure of revenge against Collins and Sun who took out another Tar Heel team, No. 2 Sara Daavettila and Cameron Morra, in the Sweet 16.
Carolina and Texas met previously this season in the ITA National Team Indoor National Championship with the Tar Heels eeking out a victory 4-3. Sun and Collins beat Daavettila and Alexa Graham. Scotty and Jones weren’t playing together that day, and so we have no true history of these two doubles teams facing off.
The championship match will take place on Friday afternoon.
As a reminder, in this tournament, if the first two sets are split, rather than play a full third set, the two teams will play the first to 10 points, win by two, with all the usual tiebreaker rules.
In the singles bracket, Sara Daavettila’s run to the championship, and her illustrious Carolina career, unfortunately ended on Thursday in the semifinals. No. 1 Daavettila fell to No. 3 Emma Navarro of Virginia 4-6, 6-2, 2-6.
While the defeat is certainly disappointing, she will leave Chapel Hill as one of the most decorated tennis players in the history of the program.
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