CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Charlotte 49ers women’s tennis team dropped a marathon match to Kentucky, 4-3, in the first round of competition at the 2024 ITA Kickoff Weekend Chapel Hill site.
 
Charlotte (2-3) started off with the doubles point and took the top two singles flights but couldn’t hold off Kentucky (4-0) from taking the bottom four singles matches and the win. Despite only one singles match requiring a third set, the match lasted four hours between the evenly matched teams.
 
The match was a war from the start, with the doubles point lasting over 75 minutes. Lucia Quiterio and Ares Teixido Garcia got things going for the Green and White with a 6-3 win over the No. 36-ranked pair in the country before the action stalled a bit. Kentucky evened the point up with a 7-5 win in the third flight while the middle match needed a tiebreak. Shona Nakano and Sara Suchankova were head 6-4 in the tiebreak and one point away from clinching, but UK’s 25th-ranked doubles pair fought back to even it up and neither team could pull away until it was knotted at 12-12. Coming out of the fourth changeover in the tiebreak, Nakano and Suchankova found the two points needed to put the Niners in front and clinch the doubles point.
 
After Kentucky took a 2-1 lead with wins in the fourth and sixth flights, Quiterio leveled the match with a win at the top flight. The nation’s No. 98-ranked singles player trailed early in the first set, 5-1, but rattled off six consecutive games to win the set before taking the second set 6-4. Lucie Petruzelova finished close behind to put the Niners back in front, needing a tiebreaker in the second frame to defeat her opponent in straight sets. A Wildcat win in the third flight brought the match down to the fifth flight between Lucia Aranda and Julia Zhu. The two foes split the opening two frames, meaning the match would come down to a decisive third set. The final stanza was neck-and-neck until Zhu won back-to-back games after being level at four to pull away with the win for Kentucky.
 
UP NEXT
Charlotte continues its play in the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Saturday (Jan. 27) in the consolation match against either No. 1 North Carolina or Oregon. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
 
RESULTS
Doubles

1. Quiterio/Teixido Garcia (CLT) def. #36 Mills/Steens (UK), 6-3
2. Nakano/Suchankova (CLT) def. #25 Eades/Gonzalez (UK), 7-6 (12)
3. Hammond/Zhu (UK) def.  Petruzelova/Wilkins (CLT), 7-5

Order of finish: 1, 3, 2*
 
Singles

1. #98 Lucia Quiterio (CLT) def. Elizabeth Stevens (UK), 7-5, 6-4
2. Lucie Petruzelova (CLT) def. Ellie Eades (UK), 6-4, 7-6 (3)
3. Lidia Gonzalez (UK) def. Ares Teixido Garcia (CLT), 7-5, 6-4
4. Zoe Hammond (UK) def. Sara Suchankova (CLT), 6-1, 6-3
5. Julia Zhu (UK) def. Lucia Aranda (CLT), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
6. Ellie Myers (UK) def. Emma Wilkins (CLT), 6-1, 6-4

Order of finish: 4, 6, 1, 2, 3, 5*