North Carolina
Florida State
No. 2 Carolina Advances To NCAA Quarters
May 20, 2010 | Women's Tennis
May 20, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. --- No. 2 North Carolina advanced to its third NCAA quarterfinal in school history with a 4-1 victory over No. 15 Florida State Thursday afternoon at the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Singles wins from Gina Suarez-Malaguti, Sophie Grabinski and Shinann Featherston helped the Tar Heels hold off the Seminoles, who rallied to split sets on courts one and three after getting a victory at No. 2. UNC will face a familiar foe in Duke Saturday afternoon at 2 for a spot in the national semifinals.
Carolina (29-4) got the ever-critical doubles point with wins on courts one and two to take an early lead.
No. 31 Featherston and Katrina Tsang rolled past Federica Suess and Jessica Sucupira, 8-2, on court two just moments before FSU's Amy Sargeant and Katie Rybakova won at No. 3 by the same score.
On court one, No. 13 Grabinski and Sanaz Marand appeared to be taking control of the match with a break to make it 3-2, but the Seminole duo of No. 55 Lauren McCreless and Francesca Segarelli broke back to even the score.
The momentum swing was only temporary, however, as the Carolina pair broke right back and proceeded to win the final five games of the match to win 8-3 and secure the doubles point.
Early on in singles it appeared that the match was going in much the same way as the teams' two previous meetings. Suarez-Malaguti continued her strong tournament form with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Suess at No. 5 before Grabinski made it 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Sargeant at No. 4.
But unlike in the two 4-0 Carolina wins earlier in the season, Florida State (16-11) pushed back.
The Seminoles got on the board at the No. 2 position, as Rybakova outlasted No. 54 Tsang, 6-4, 6-4. Soon after Rybakova's victory, FSU forced second-set tiebreaks on courts one and three.
On court three, No. 103 Segarelli rallied from down a break to take the second set, 7-6 (3), while on court one No. 22 McCreless fought off four match points in the tiebreak against No. 21 Marand to send the match to a third.
While the tension mounted on the upper courts, Featherston was quietly pushing the Seminoles to the brink of elimination.
The Rockaway Park, N.Y., sophomore survived a lengthy opening set against Sucupira before winning in a tiebreak, 7-6 (5). Featherston then got a crucial early break in the second and grinded out a 6-2 victory to seal the match and earn UNC a date with Duke in the quarters.
In addition to putting the Tar Heels into the final eight for just the third time in program history, Thursday's win was a record-setting 29th of the season, eclipsing the 1980 squad's 28-6 mark.
Saturday's match between the longtime Atlantic Coast Conference rivals is set for 2 p.m. Live scoring and video will be available at georgiadogs.com with links available on TarHeelBlue.com.
No. 2 North Carolina 4, No. 15 Florida State 1
Doubles
1. #13 Marand/Grabinski (UNC) def. #55 McCreless/Segarelli (FSU), 8-3
2. #31 Tsang/Featherston (UNC) def. Suess/Sucupira (FSU), 8-2
3. Sargeant/Rybakova (FSU) def. De Bruycker/Ffriend (UNC), 8-2
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles
1. #21 Sanaz Marand (UNC) vs. #22 Lauren McCreless (FSU), DNF
2. Katie Rybakova (FSU) def. #54 Katrina Tsang (UNC), 6-4, 6-4
3. Jelena Durisic (UNC) vs. #103 Francesca Segarelli (FSU), DNF
4. Sophie Grabinski (UNC) def. Amy Sargeant (FSU), 6-4, 6-3
5. Gina Suarez-Malaguti (UNC) def. Federica Suess (FSU), 6-3, 6-2
6. Shinann Featherston (UNC) def. Jessica Sucupria (FSU), 7-6 (5), 6-2
Order of finish: 5, 4, 2, 6*
Players Mentioned
