The North Carolina women and the Virginia men won NCAA DI tennis national championships this weekend at the USTA National Campus in Orlando. It concludes the team portion of the 2023 NCAA Tennis Championships, which, for the first time ever, featured the men’s and women’s championships for all three NCAA Divisions at one location.
The No. 1-ranked North Carolina women’s team avenged their only loss of the season, defeating No. 3 NC State in Saturday’s final to secure the program’s first ever NCAA DI women’s team national championship. NC State, which was playing in the program’s first national championship match, defeated their crosstown rival in the ACC Championship match earlier this season, but came up short, by a score of 4-1, Saturday night.
NC State’s only point on Saturday came from freshman Diana Shnaider, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, after finishing with an unblemished record over the final three matches.
North Carolina was led by junior Fiona Crawley, the top-ranked player in the nation, who won her singles match Saturday night along with senior Elizabeth Scotty and sophomore Carson Tanguilig.
On Sunday, the No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers knocked off the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes, to win their second consecutive national championship and sixth overall. The 4-0 Virginia win denied Ohio State the program’s first national title and avenged two losses earlier this season to the Buckeyes.
Junior Chris Rodesch was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, playing No. 1 singles for the Cavaliers, while junior Inaki Montes de la Torre clinched the match on the No. 2 court.
Read Randy Walker’s story on the North Carolina women’s win here: https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/21978
Read Randy Walker’s story on the Virginia men’s win here: https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/21984
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