Hayley Carter looked over to teammate Caroline Price and pumped her fist shouting, “Let’s go Heels!” as the scoreboard changed to be in her favor for the first time two sets.
A member of the No. 1 ranked UNC women’s tennis team, Carter is ranked No. 19 in the nation. At Friday’s match against Georgia Tech, she lost the first set of her singles match 4-6 and fell to an early 0-3 deficit in the second set.
The score wasn’t the only thing Carter had to overcome. She had turned her right ankle, which was already in a brace, early in the match.
“I always have a little something aching,” she said. “It is always a little bit in my head but I think I played through it pretty well (Friday).”
With this slight injury and the dismal score, Carter got some much-needed motivation from Coach Brian Kalbas.
“I kind of challenged (Carter) competitively when she was down 3-0, and she is such a gamer, she responded extremely well,” Coach explained.
And respond she did.
Carter recognized she wasn’t representing her team, or UNC, to the best of her ability. She regrouped mentally and began a tireless push to turn the match around.
Carter hammered home point after point, winning six straight games to send the match into a third set.
