Duke Women Hand No. 1 UNC First Loss; No. 2 Ohio State Men Beat Michigan; Kang Reaches Semifinals at Sunrise $15K; Chirico, Volynets Advance at Palm Harbor $100K; Johnson and Kudla Meet in Sarasota Challenger Semis

The University of North Carolina women suffered their first loss of the season Friday night in Durham, with the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils getting a 4-1 victory over the top-ranked Tar Heels. Duke won the doubles point and five first sets in singles; North Carolina fought back to force third sets at lines 2 and 5, but Duke held on for three straight-sets victories. Chloe Beck, who had been playing No. 2 most of the year, made it 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Cameron Morra at line 1. Ellie Coleman made it 3-0 with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Annika Yarlagadda at line 6. UNC picked up their point at line 5, with Carson Tanguilig beating Margaryta Bilokin 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, but Kelly Chen closed it out without further drama, handing Fiona Crawley her first collegiate dual match loss 6-4, 6-3 at line 4.

North Carolina had already clinched the ACC regular season title and the top seed in the upcoming tournament, so this result is probably more important for Duke in its quest to finish in the Top 8 and earn a Super Regional hosting date. 

The No. 2 team in the women's rankings, Oklahoma, came oh so close to dropping its rivalry match against No. 12 Oklahoma State in Stillwater, but the Sooners pulled out a 4-3 victory to secure the Big 12 regular season title for the first time in program history.

Oklahoma won the doubles point, but Oklahoma State won four first sets in singles. The Sooners, who did not have Ivana Corley in the lineup, took first sets at lines 3 and 5, but needed to get to a third set in one of the other four single matches. Oklahoma State closed out wins at lines 2, 4, and 6, and Oklahoma got their two singles points, with all five of those matches decided in straight sets. But at line 1, Layne Sleeth of Oklahoma forced a third set after Lisa Marie Rioux had taken the first 6-1 and Sleeth the second 7-5. Rioux couldn't hold on to a 4-1 lead in the third set and Sleeth took the last three games of the match to clinch it for Oklahoma.

The other rivalry match tonight was between men's No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Michigan in Columbus, with the home team taking a 4-1 decision. The Buckeyes took the doubles point and a shuffling of their lineup paid off, with JJ Tracy, playing No. 2 after being slotted at No. 4 throughout the year, getting the second point for the Buckeyes with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Andrew Fenty. Jake Van Emburgh, down to line 4 from his usual No 3 position, defeated Gavin Young 6-1, 6-3 to make it 3-0, but the other four singles matches all went to three sets. Michigan got a point from Jacob Bickersteth at line 5, but Cannon Kingsley closed out Ondrej Styler at line 1 to give Ohio State the win. Michigan had defeated Ohio State 4-0 in a non-conference match in Ann Arbor last month.

Kyle Kang reached the final of the ITF J1 in San Diego last month and the semifinals of the Easter Bowl JB1 two weeks ago. A short week off didn't stall any of his momentum, with the 17-year-old from Fullerton California now into the semifinals of the $15,000 USTA Men's Pro Circuit tournament in Sunrise Florida.

Wild card Kang, currently 124 in the ITF Junior Circuit rankings, defeated unseeded Nathan Ponwith (Georgia/Arizona State) 6-3, 6-3 in Kang's first quarterfinal appearance in a Pro Circuit tournament. After dropping a set in his first round win over Orange Bowl champion Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay, Kang has two straight-set wins over seasoned Pro Circuit veterans. He will face unseeded Sekou Bangoura (Florida) in Saturday's semifinals, after Bangoura rolled past Bruno Kuzuhara 6-1, 6-2 in 67 minutes. The other semifinal features No. 3 seed Jose Pereira of Brazil and No. 2 seed Evan Zhu (UCLA).

At the $100,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Palm Harbor Florida, lucky loser Luisa Chirico and No. 8 seed Katie Volynets advanced to Saturday's semifinals with three-set victories. Chirico defeated qualifier Gabriella Talaba Lee (Texas Tech) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 and Volynets ended the run of wild card Taylor Townsend 7-5, 4-6, 6-0. Chirico will play 2018 US Open girls champion Xiyu Wang of China, the No. 5 seed, who defeated wild card Sophie Chang 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Volynets will face No. 3 seed Irina Bara of Romania, who beat unseeded Grace Min 6-3, 6-4.

Top seed Denis Kudla and No. 4 seed Steve Johnson will meet in Saturday's semifinals of the ATP 100 Challenger in Sarasota Florida. Johnson defeated Mitchell Krueger 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 and Kudla beat No. 7 seed Jack Sock 7-5, 6-1 in the all US top half. The other semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Alejandro Tabilo of Chile, who defeated JJ Wolf 6-1, 6-4 and No. 5 seed Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia, who advanced when qualifier Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria retired down 2-0.