#1 Carolina Visits ND, U of L This Weekend

Friday, April 6

Notre Dame, Ind.

4:00 PM

North Carolina

Notre Dame

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

April 5, 2018 | Women's Tennis

By: Mark Kimmel

North Carolina heads out on the road again for a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference women's tennis matches this weekend. The No. 1 ranked Tar Heels first visit Notre Dame on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Louisville on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Carolina enters the weekend at 18-2 overall and 7-1 against the ACC, sitting second in the conference behind Duke, who is 8-0 in the league and will face third place Georgia Tech (6-2) on Friday in Atlanta.

The Tar Heels, who boast perhaps the deepest singles lineup in the country, are the only team in Division I women's tennis to have six singles players ranked among the top 125 according to the Oracle/ITA rankings.

Led by No. 14 Makenna Jones, the sophomore is followed by No. 22 Alle Sanford, No. 30 Sara Daavettila, No. 71 Jessie Aney, No. 76 Alexa Graham and No. 117 Chloe Ouellet-Pizer.

Aney and Graham are the No. 1 rated doubles tandem, while Daavettila and Sanford check in No. 20 this week.

Notre Dame (10-8, 2-6 ACC) is currenlty mired in a five-match losing streak leading into Friday. The Irish are coming off a 5-2 setback at Clemson on April 1 to wrap up a four-match road swing.

The Cardinals (13-6, 3-5 ACC) are coming off a three-game road swing that concluded with a 6-1 setback at Duke last time out. Seniors Abbie Pahz and Mariana Humberg rank No. 62 in this week's ITA doubles rankings. The pair has lost only one match this spring in the dual season.

The Tar Heels return home to take on No. 20 Virginia on Friday, April 13 at 3 p.m. The Cavaliers are led by first-year head coach Sara O'Leary, who under her maiden name of Anundsen, won a 2007 NCAA doubles title at North Carolina. UVa's assistant coach is Gina Suarez-Malaguit, also a former Tar Heel All-America that was named the 2013 ACC Player of the Year.