North Carolina improved to 30-0 and will take on No. 5 seed Pepperdine on Friday in the semifinals. This marks the fourth NCAA Final Four appearance for the Tar Heels, all coming since 2010.
"I give a lot of credit to Duke," said UNC head coach Brian Kalbas. "They played really well. I congratulated Jamie [Ashworth] and he said it's the best they played all year. For them to do that on this stage as late as we were playing, it was tough. We withstood a lot of talented players playing really well and confident with nothing to lose. It was interesting because we had three super seniors there at the end. It was comforting to have that kind of experience out there."
Carolina would extend its winning streak in doubles to 23 matches in a row by grabbing an early lead on court two and gutting out a clinching victory on court three.
No. 4 Makenna Jones and Elizabeth Scotty took down No. 9 Chloe Beck and Karolina Berankova, 6-4, to chalk up the first doubles win, and No. 34 Alle Sanford and Reilly Tran closed it out with a 7-5 win from court three.
Both doubles teams remain unbeaten in postseason play.
18th ranked Duke (18-7) came out strong in singles, winning four of the six first sets to wrangle momentum away from the Tar Heels.
However, as the clock pushed past midnight and into early Thursday morning, No. 36 Fiona Crawley gave UNC a 2-0 edge with a 6-1, 6-0, victory over Margaryta Bilokin from court five. The San Antonio, Texas, native improved to 29-0 in her freshman campaign.
The Blue Devils got their first and only point from court three to cut into the UNC lead at 2-1.
With the final four matches all going the distance into third sets, No. 117 Reilly Tran got Carolina within a point of victory after taking out Karolina Berankova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. Tran, the other freshman starter in the lineup, is now 19-0 this season.
No. 32 Makenna Jones, who dropped her first set, 6-0, to No. 40 Meible Chi, stormed back to take the final two sets by identical 6-4 scores, taking the deciding point at 1:05 a.m. ET.
"I have had a whirlwind of a college career and so I've had times in the past where I have gotten myself maybe in a slow start, but my biggest thing is I always try to believe in myself no matter the circumstances," said Jones.
"I consider myself a fighter and so especially for my team, I wanted to leave my heart out there today no matter what happened. So I just did my best and tried to stick in it and got some games and then started feeling some mojo and all of the sudden I was up in the third set and I was like 'wow, I can really do this.'"
The Carolina-Duke match didn't begin until just before 10 p.m. ET after the previous quarterfinal bout between Pepperdine and UCLA lasted 4 hours and 18 minutes long. With a brief weather delay, multiple tiebreakers and third-set slugfests, the Waves prevailed 4-3 to reach the semifinals for the first time in program history.
UNC knocked off Pepperdine, 4-1, earlier in the 2021 season on Feb. 6 in the semifinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Singles
1. #2 Sara Daavettila (UNC) vs. #49 Kelly Chen (DU) 6-1, 2-6, 4-3, unfinished
2. #41 Alexa Graham (UNC) vs. #19 Georgia Drummy (DU) 4-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0, unfinished
3. #39 Chloe Beck (DU) def. #27 Cameron Morra (UNC) 6-1, 6-4
4. #32 Makenna Jones (UNC) def. #40 Meible Chi (DU) 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. #36 Fiona Crawley (UNC) def. Margaryta Bilokin (DU) 6-1, 6-0
6. #117 Reilly Tran (UNC) def. Karolina Berankova (DU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish: 5, 3, 6, 4
Doubles
1. #10 Meible Chi/Margaryta Bilokin (DU) def. #2 Sara Daavettila/Cameron Morra (UNC) 6-2
2. #4 Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty (UNC) def. #9 Chloe Beck/Karolina Berankova (DU) 6-4
3. #34 Alle Sanford/Reilly Tran (UNC) def. #41 Kelly Chen/Georgia Drummy (DU) 7-5
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
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Carolina Prevails Over Duke To Reach NCAA Final Four - UNC Athletics
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