What’s the difference between Chick-Fil-A and the University of Miami women’s basketball team? Unlike the restaurant, the Hurricanes will be working on Sunday for the next three weeks.

The first of three Sunday matinees will be between the Hurricanes (15-4, 3-1 ACC) and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Tip-off is at at 2:30 p.m. and is in its first RSN-televised contest of the season.

Tony Capobianco

Miami enters this contest coming off a 58-50 road win over the Duke Blue Devils on Thursday. It was the Hurricane’s first even win at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Redshirt junior forward Beatrice Mompremier led the Canes with an impressive double-double consisting of 16 points and 17 rebounds. Senior forward/center Emese Hof posted 13 points to pass the 1,000-point career milestone, making her the 27th player in program history.

”The fact that her 1,000th point was on a run-out was amazing because that was really courageous,” Miami head coach Katie Meier said. “I think it was Laura [Cornelius, a fellow Netherlands native] that made the pass, which means a lot. That’s what I love about this team; we were celebrating in the locker room [and the reason] . . . was because Emese got her 1,000th point and she’s given her heart and soul to this team.”

For Meier, it was the first time the former Blue Devil defeated her alma mater on the road and notched a win as a coach in her old stomping grounds.

North Carolina (10-8, 1-3 ACC) is led by sophomore center Janelle Bailey, who is averaging 16.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. The Tar Heels are on pace to finish with a better record than last year (15-16, 4-12 ACC).

Despite trailing the all-time series with North Carolina 9-13, the Hurricanes have won five of the last seven meetings. They are currently riding a three-game winning streak against the Tar Heels with their last win being a 92-72 blowout on the road back in Feb. 4, 2018.

Women’s Tennis opens 2019 on top

The No. 17 Hurricanes improved their all-time record in season openers to an astounding 45-2 with a dominating 7-0 sweep over Florida Atlantic on Friday.

The No. 51-ranked pair of junior Yuna Ito and sophomore Ulyana Shirokova logged a nearly flawless 6-1 win over FAU’s Barbora Palcatova and Kristen Thoms.

Freshman Daevenia Achong, in her first-career dual match action, won 6-2 with junior Estela Perez-Somarriba and clinched the doubles point. Achong also logged Miami’s opening point in singles competition with first career win over a ranked opponent, steamrolling past No. 88 Boltinskaya, 6-3. 6-0.

“Daev played an organized match today up top. She was very put together from beginning to end,” Miami head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said “I’m really happy with the maturity level of both Carla and Daev so early in the season.”

The Hurricanes improved to 30-0 against the Owls. In all but five of those meetings, Miami has won in a sweep.

The Hurricanes travel to Fort Myers on Saturday for a doubleheader against Florida Gulf Coast at 9 a.m. and Cornell at 3 p.m. This will be their first meeting against the Big Red.

Miami is 4-0 all-time against FGCU, but this will be the first time they face off in the Eagles’ court. The Hurricane’s most recent win over their in-state rival was a clean 4-0 sweep on Feb. 10, 2018 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.

Men’s Tennis begins season 2-0

The Hurricanes dominated Stetson (7-0) and Liberty (6-1) on Friday to begin the 2019 duel season 2-0.

Led by third-year head coach Aljosa Piric, the Hurricanes features a trio of nationally-ranked singles players in sophomores Adria Soriano Barrera (No. 21), Bojan Jankulovski (No. 35) and freshman Francisco Bastias (No. 97).

Jankulovski was flawless with sweeping wins over Stetson’s Louis Gorregues (6-1, 6-1) and Liberty’s Eddie Gutierrez (6-2, 6-3).

Barrera and redshirt junior Dane Dunlap 4-6 doubles loss to Liberty’s Nicaise Muamba and Chase Burton was the lone blemish.

The Hurricanes will host Florida Atlantic on Monday for a 11 a.m. matinee.

Volleyball brings in a Thunderbird

UM women’s volleyball coach Jose Gandara announced on Monday the signing of Janet Kalaniuvalu.

The 6-foot, 2-inch outside hitter comes in as a transfer from Southern Utah with two years of eligibility remaining.

“Janet was someone who jumped out at us due to her ability to get kills, a place where we often struggled last season,” Gandara said. “At the higher levels, points need to be earned and that is a big part of Janet’s identity as a player. Once we got to know her character and personality, it was an easy decision to ask her to join our team.”

Kalaniuvalu led the Big Sky Conference and the Thunderbirds last season in kills averaging 4.03 per set, finishing the season with 451 kills.