{"id":5683,"date":"2013-05-24T14:30:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T18:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2013-05-25T01:14:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-25T05:14:19","slug":"uncs-suarez-malaguti-makes-it-to-ncaa-tennis-final-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=5683","title":{"rendered":"UNC’s Suarez-Malaguti makes it to NCAA tennis final 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Suarez-Malaguti.\"<\/a>
Suarez-Malaguti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>North Carolina senior Gina Suarez-Malaguti advanced to the national quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Kansas State’s Petra Niedermayerova Friday morning at the Atkins Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Illinois. Suarez-Malaguti is the first Tar Heel to advance to the final eight of the NCAA Singles Championship since Sanaz Marand in 2009 and just the fourth in school history.<\/p>\n

After dropping the opening set in Thursday’s round of 16 match, Suarez-Malaguti has lost just four games over the course of four sets against Clemson’s Beatrice Gumulya and Niedermayerova. The Pembroke Pines, Fla., All-America performer rolled to a 6-1 first set win Friday before holding to opening the second set. Suarez-Malaguti then broke Niedermayerova and consolidated for a 3-0 lead and never looked back. <\/p>\n

Suarez-Malaguti will now face Texas freshman Breaunna Addison in Saturday’s quartefinals. Addison defeated Arizona State’s Jacqueline Cako, 6-2, 6-4, to advance. <\/p>\n

“I just focused on having fun and enjoying this last time I get to wear Carolina gear,” Suarez-Malaguti said after the match. <\/p>\n

She joins Marand, 2002 quarterfinalist Kate Pinchbeck and 1993 finalist Cinda Gurney in the exclusive club of Tar Heels to reach the final eight of the NCAA Singles Championship.<\/p>\n

“I think yesterday Pichi realized that she is capable of winning a national championship and that even though this is an individual tournament, she is still playing for Carolina and for her coaches and teammates,” head coach Brian Kalbas said. “She played a very talented opponent today and just put together a complete match.”<\/p>\n

Sophomore Caroline Price saw her run in the singles tournament come to an end Friday with a 6-1, 6-2 loss to No. 41 Natalie Beazant of Rice. Despite the loss, Price ends her season with a team-best 34 singles wins. The Duluth, Ga., product has earned All-America, All-ACC and ITA National Team Indoor All-Tournament honors in 2013 and figures to be a key piece of the Carolina lineup in 2014.
\n
\nNCAA Round of 16<\/em>
\n#7 Gina Suarez-Malaguti, UNC (7) def #15 Petra Niedermayerova, KSU (9-16), 6-1, 6-1
\n#41 Natalie Beazant, RICE def. #46 Caroline Price, UNC, 6-1, 6-2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina senior Gina Suarez-Malaguti advanced to the national quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Kansas State’s Petra Niedermayerova Friday morning at the Atkins…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5698,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions\/5698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}