Hilton Head’s Hayley Carter falls short in NCAA women’s singles final
Hilton Head Island’s Hayley Carter came up one step short in her bid for the NCAA women’s singles crown, as the North Carolina junior succumbed in straight sets to ACC rival Danielle Collins of Virginia in Monday’s final at Tulsa, Okla.
Collins captured her second NCAA title in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph, taking control by winning the last three games of the opening set and five of the first six in the second set. Collins did not lose a set during her run through the 64-player bracket at the University of Tulsa’s Case Tennis Center.
Carter battled back from an early deficit to square the opening set at 3-3, but lost each of the next two games on deuce points. The NCAA uses a no-ad scoring system, so games that reach deuce are decided by the next point.
The Smith Stearns Academy product, who had held the No.1 collegiate ranking since March, won the opening game of the second set but was broken in each of her next two service games as Collins pulled away. That included another deuce point in which Collins ripped a service return down the line to go ahead 4-1.
Carter won a deuce point on her next serve to close within 5-2, but Collins closed out the match on another deuce point when she forced Carter into an off-balance shot that sailed wide.
Collins, a senior from St. Petersburg, Fla., also won the NCAA singles title in 2014, her reign interrupted by North Carolina’s Jamie Loeb last year.
Monday’s duel was their fourth of the season, with each player winning once. Carter won a regular-season meeting in March, with the other two matches abandoned in dual competition after UNC clinched the ACC title and Virginia ousted the Tar Heels from the NCAA Round of 16.
Carter finished her season with a 48-5 singles record. She also reached the NCAA doubles semifinals with UNC partner Whitney Kay, but came up short in a third-set tiebreak Sunday against California’s Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr.
This story was originally published May 30, 2016 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Hilton Head’s Hayley Carter falls short in NCAA women’s singles final."