North Carolina Team Page
CHAPEL HILL --- No. 1 North Carolina returns to the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center for its first Atlantic Coast Conference home matches of 2013 this weekend when the Tar Heels host Virginia Tech and Virginia Friday and Saturday. The Tar Heels will face the No. 60 Hokies at 11 a.m. Friday while the No. 27 Cavaliers visit Saturday at 1 p.m.
Carolina (16-1, 2-0 ACC) is coming off a three-match road swing that featured wins over No. 21 Texas Tech, No. 40 NC State and No. 11 Northwestern. Sophomore Caroline Price, who was 4-0 in wins over the Wolfpack and Wildcats last week, was named ACC Player of the Week for her performance. The Duluth, Ga., product is a perfect 15-0 in dual match singles play on the year and is ranked No. 33 in the latest ITA singles poll.
Gina Suarez-Malaguti, who clinched the Northwestern win with her sixth win of the spring, leads the Tar Heels in the singles poll at No. 9. She is joined by Whitney Kay at No. 25 and Zoe De Bruycker at No. 43 as well as price. In the doubles poll, Kay and Ashley Dai are ranked No. 23, while Price and Kay come in at No. 42 after upsetting No. 8 Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton of Northwestern last Sunday.
Virginia Tech is 13-3 on the season and 2-1 in league play after a 6-1 loss to Virginia last Saturday. The Cavaliers are 8-6 overall and a perfect 3-0 in the ACC with wins over Maryland, Boston College and Virginia Tech. They are led No. 15 Julia Elbaba and No. 65 Stephanie Nauta in singles and feature the No. 12 doubles team in the country in Erin Vierra and Maci Epstein.
Both matches this weekend are free to all spectators and live scoring will be available at GoHeels.com.
