Miami Hurricanes fall to No. 1 NC State Wolfpack in NCAA tennis national championship

The University of Miami was one victory from its first NCAA national doubles championship in 36 years, but top-ranked North Carolina State refused to falter.

The No. 1 Wolfpack duo of Jaeda Daniel and Nell Miller defeated No. 13 Daevenia Achong/Eden Richardson 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday in Urbana, Illinois, for the women’s doubles title.

Saturday was the first time since 1988 that a UM women’s doubles team made it to the NCAA championship final, and second time since 1986. The Hurricanes, who won the NCAA doubles title in 1986, have sent a player or pair to the women’s tennis Final Four in six of the past seven NCAA tournaments.

“Credit to NC State,’’ UM coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “They played a first set that I haven’t seen played in awhile in college tennis — really, really high-level and there wasn’t much we could do about it. We made some adjustments in the second set and were able to get in a couple games and take the lead. It worked for awhile but they made another adjustment and that was the match.”

The two pairs previously met March 6 in a dual match in Raleigh, North Carolina, with NC State, then ranked second in the nation as a team, winning 6-4.

Saturday was Richardson’s second appearance in the NCAA final after winning the 2018 doubles title with Jessica Golovin when Richardson played for LSU. She is the 24th woman to play in the Division I NCAA doubles championship multiple times, but the first player ever to reach the title match for two schools.

Richardson, from Bath, England, transferred to UM before this, her fifth-year senior season. According to UM, Richardson joined UCLA’s Lauren Fisher (2002 runner-up, 2004 champion) and Georgia’s Marissa Catlin (1997 runner-up, 2000 runner-up) as the only players to make the NCAA doubles title match twice as an unseeded player. Catlin lost in the final as the top seed in 1999.

Achong is from Geleen, Netherlands, and will be back for her fifth year in 2023.

In 1986, when UM won the doubles championship, the former Ronni Reis (now Ronni Bernstein) and Lise Gregory defeated Ann Hulbert and Gretchen Rush of Trinity (Texas). The Canes lost in the 1988 doubles final.

Yaroshuk-Tews said both competitors were understandably down after the match.

“If you’re a competitive athlete you want to be in these moments and you want to win them,’’ the coach said. “They’re a little bit disappointed but in a couple days they’ll be back, and proud of their season.”