UNC Spring Sports Weekend Recap: 5/15

We’re getting into crunch time in many of the spring sports, and several North Carolina Tar Heels teams had important events this weekend. Let’s look ahead at what’s happened already and what’s on tap for today for UNC at the various NCAA and ACC championship events.

The women’s tennis team has booked a place in the Elite 8 and a trip to Champaign, IL next weekend.

As we’ve discussed before, the way the NCAA tennis team tournament works is that each round consists of three doubles matches and six singles matches. Each singles match is worth a point, while whatever school wins two of the three doubles matches also gets a point. Whatever team wins four points first wins the match.

The #1 overall seed UNC had no issues in the Sweet 16, sweeping #16 Florida 4-0. They dominated the doubles point, winning two of the three matches quickly and was leading in the third as well. In singles, Anika Yarlagadda, Elizabeth Scotty, and Fiona Crawley all won in straight sets to quickly clinch the the win and a place in the Elite 8.

The final three rounds of the NCAA Tournament are all set to be held next weekend in Champaign, with the Elite 8 starting on Friday. Next up for the Heels is Pepperdine, and Carolina will be looking for revenge as the Waves knocked UNC out in the Final Four in last year’s tournament.

After two wins last weekend, men’s tennis fell in the Sweet 16, losing 4-0 to the #2 overall seed Florida. The Heels battled hard, keeping in close in most of the matches played, but they couldn’t actually finish off enough wins to avoid the clean sweep. They finish the season with an 18-9 record.

In ACC championship news, the conference’s Track and Field championship meet is being held this weekend and a couple Tar Heels have already taken home conference crowns. Madison Wiltrout is the ACC women’s javelin champion after setting a conference record with a throw of 60.03m. Meanwhile, Jillian Shipee is the women’s hammer throw champion. Several others Carolina athletes recorded high finishes, with Tar Heels finishing runner up in seven other events. As a team, the men finished finished in the overall standings, while the women finished in ninth.

The ACC Rowing Championships were also held over the weekend, and UNC ended up finishing ninth in the team standings.

Later today, the undefeated and #1 overall Tar Heel women’s lacrosse team will open their NCAA Tournament. After getting a bye in round one, Carolina is set to take on Virginia today at 12 PM ET on ESPN+. UNC beat UVA 17-7 in their meeting during the regular season.

Update: Women’s lacrosse absolutely crushed Virginia, beating them 24-2 to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals.

It’s a busy time of year in college sports and it looks like UNC athletics will be plenty busy themselves over the next couple weeks.