University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Three-peat at ITA Indoors for women’s tennis

The North Carolina women’s tennis program won its third consecutive ITA National Team Indoor Championship with a 4-2 comeback victory over upstart Oklahoma in the 2022 finals from Wisconsin’s Nielson Center.

Making its eighth straight appearance in the championship match, No. 2 North Carolina joins Stanford as the only programs to ever win three straight ITA Indoor titles. The Cardinal won three of its record 10 titles between 2004-06.

No. 8 Oklahoma, who was making its first appearance in the indoor finale, didn’t make it easy on the Tar Heels by winning the doubles point for the fourth day in a row, while Carolina trailed after doubles for the second time in the last three days.

Needing to win four of the six singles matches to win the title, Carolina dug itself an even deeper hole by capturing only two first sets among the six.

One of the two that grabbed an early lead was No. 27 Elizabeth Scotty, who ripped off a 6-2, 6-1, victory over No. 35 Carmen Corley to knot the score at 1-1.

The other was No. 19 Fiona Crawley, who made her early advantage hold up to post a 6-4, 6-4, win over No. Anchisa Chanta.

The Tar Heels pushed all four remaining matches to third sets and the momentum continued to roll in the champ’s favor.

The Sooners (11-1) grabbed their final point of the afternoon to make it 2-all, before the combination of freshman Carson Tanguilig and junior Anika Yarlagadda sealed the title with back-to-back wins on courts five and six, respectively.

Yarlagadda clinched victory for the second day in a row.

North Carolina (11-0) has won four titles in the last five years and six in the last 10 years.