Busy weekend in ACC womens tennis, so lets dive right in and highlight a few to watch:
After losing its last two conference matches, against tough competition in Georgia Tech and Virginia, the Louisville Cardinals bounced back with a good win against the Hokies of Va Tech. This weekend they hit the road for two big matches that are nearly must wins for them to stay in the top half of the conference. Friday, they take on the Boston College Eagles, whom they handled fairly routinely last season. BC is coming off of a victory, its sole conference win, against Clemson.
Va Tech has been confounding this season, with some good wins and some head scratching losses. They host a Pitt team on Friday that is still looking for a conference win.
Miami at Virginia should be a great matchup between two top ranked conference foes that will figure in rankings and tourney seedings. UVa has won two straight (UofL and ND) after taking one on the chin against Duke. Miami is coming off a win against NC State but may be caught looking ahead to Sundays huge match against Duke.
Speaking of Duke, it has been a long time since they lost a court, let alone a match. They only have one loss all season and that was at the hands of the top ranked North Carolina Tar Heels. Since that loss on Feb 11, they have rattled off six straight easy victories. Notre Dame should not give them any trouble so the real test for the Blue Devils comes on Sunday against the Canes.
FSU has lost its last three conference matches but they have all been against tough competition and they did manage to take top ranked Carolina to the limit. Their match against Wake on Friday is a great test to see where they are at this point. Later in the day they have an out of conference match against North Carolina A&T which happens to be winless this season.
The match of the weekend is this lone Saturday match between top ranked UNC and sixth ranked Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets, who are currently sitting in the four spot in the league with only one conference loss, snapped UNC’s 50-match home court winning streak last April in a close 4-3 win.
Louisville at Syracuse should be an interesting matchup. Syracuse has their first player ranked in the top 10 in Gabriela Knutson. Last season the Orange defeated the Cards on a similar trip for the Louisville squad, and this would be a huge win for Coach Beckhams improved UofL team if he could get it.
Georgia Tech comes into Raleigh as the sixth ranked team in the nation. The Pack are coming off a split in Florida which saw them beat the Noles but lose to the Canes. Still a bit of an enigma how good this squad is but they are certainly capable. They will have to be at their best to pull the upset against the Yellow Jackets, however.
Miami at Duke is going to be a battle. This would be a massive win for the Canes to say the least and it would cap off a huge weekend for them.
Va Tech visits the top ranked team in the nation on Sunday in what should be an entertaining matchup. UNC, unlike Duke, does not crush opponents winning every court along the way, which means if a feisty opponent such as Va Tech can sneak in a win on one court.well, you never know. Heck, the guys bball team already knocked off a #1 team this year, when they went to UVa and beat their in state rival.
BC hosts 2 out of conference opponents on Sunday; Bryant, and UConn.
Clemson is off this weekend after a mid-week doubleheader at the USTA National Tennis Center which saw the Tigers defeat Yale 4-0 before falling to host UCF 4-3.
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