Clemson women’s tennis gets revenge, waxes Tar Heels for trip to Sweet 16

Clemson’s women’s tennis team eagerly anticipated Saturday’s showdown with North Carolina, but even they couldn’t have imagined just how perfectly the day unfolded.

Twelth-seeded Clemson won the rubber match in the teams’ third meeting of 2009, waxing the Tar Heels 4-0 in an NCAA Tournament second-round meeting at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center.

It was by far the most lopsided of the three meetings; Clemson won 4-2 in the regular season at Chapel Hill, while UNC returned the favor with a 4-2 ACC tournament upset. Clemson (19-7) now advances to face either Notre Dame or Michigan in the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament on Friday at College Station, Tex.

“They knew what they wanted to do, keep a better focus, keep to their game plan and they executed it,” Clemson coach Nancy Harris said. “It was a wonderful performance by our whole entire team. It was a dream match for a coach.”

The Tigers set the tone very early by taking the doubles point 2-0.

“It was especially rewarding to get that doubles point,” Harris said. “In my opinion, North Carolina has the best doubles in the country. Of all the schools we’ve played, we’ve had more trouble with North Carolina’s doubles than anyone else. You can’t imagine how big it was to get the doubles point.”

Momentum built from there as the Tigers won the first set in all six best-of-three singles matches. After that, victory was only a matter of time.

Freshman Josipa Bek finished first, handling Katarina Tsang 6-1, 6-2. No. 3 player Ina Hadziselimovic was next, taking out Austin Smith 6-3, 6-2.

That left either No. 4 Keri Wong or No. 6 Laurianne Henry, an Anderson native, to finish the job. Both were comfortably ahead, but Henry finished first, beating Laura Reichert 6-4, 6-3.

It marked the second straight season that Henry’s win advanced Clemson to the Sweet 16.

“It was nerve-wracking,” she said. “I didn’t really know until the last two games. I finally looked at the score and definitely felt the pressure. I was going (deuce-advantage) the last two games. I was in the same position last year and felt exactly the same.”

In the six singles matches, Clemson lost only one completed set.

“I think we were more patient (than the ACC meeting),” Henry said. “Our mentality was, ‘Fight for every single point.’ Of course we’re going to miss some, but just show we’re not going to give up.”

Harris said home court and the familiarity with the Tar Heels were major factors; the previous meetings allowed Clemson to scout North Carolina and self-scout its own weaknesses.

It made for a satisfying win in a season which has been marred by injuries; five of the Tigers’ top eight players have missed time this season, including No. 5 player Estefania Balda Saturday.

“They’ve done very well in spite of that,” Harris said. “I think if we hadn’t had so many injuries, we might be a higher seed in the tournament. But what you’re given, that’s what you deal with. I think the Tigers did a fabulous job today.”

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