The North Carolina women's tennis team didn't have enough to pull out another win against a highly ranked squad.
Facing its fourth top-10 opponent in a row UNC (6-3) fell decisively to No. 6 Florida 6-1 Sunday.
The No. 5 Tar Heels were outmatched at nearly every position" with its only win coming from sophomore Sanaz Marand at No. 2 singles.
""Anything bad today that could have happened" happened" UNC coach Brian Kalbas said.
I thought our energy level wasn't there. We were waiting for things good to happen instead of making things happen.""
Florida (4-1) seized the momentum by taking the doubles point and never looked back" taking the first four singles points before Marand put the Tar Heels on the board.
Kalbas said the loss of the doubles point and an injury to freshman Jelena Durisic were the match's turning points. He said that the doubles point loss deflated the team members' attitudes and that Durisic had a good chance of winning her singles match if not for injury.
The Torrance Calif.-native appeared to hurt her knee during the first set of her match and she limped off the court after being unable to continue.
Kalbas said that she is scheduled to have an MRI on her knee today and that they will know more information at that time.
Meg Fanjoy was also injured. She had her ankle tended to during the first set of her singles match" but she played through the injury the rest of the way.
Marand and doubles partner Sophie Grabinski said the team's mental preparations affected the way the Tar Heels came out against Florida.
""We were all really motivated and everyone wanted to win really bad"" Grabinski said. I think that's a hard mentality to keep up for hour upon hour. Maybe we should have been more even keel as opposed to quite as hyped up as we were.""
Marand put it more bluntly.
""Everyone really wasn't quite there today" she said.
We started off well and then when the other team kept fighting and coming back" we played back a little bit and then calmed down and looked flat. We weren't as hyped up as we were before going into the match.""
North Carolina's difficult nonconference schedule continues next weekend when No. 2 Northwestern and No. 14 Notre Dame come to Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels will be looking for revenge against Northwestern after last weekend's loss in the semifinals of ITA Indoor Nationals.
Kalbas said that despite the loss to Florida"" last weekend's victories against then-No. 2 UCLA and then-No. 8 USC raised expectations.
""Ultimately" if we're going to be a championship caliber team" we have to play this kind of schedule.""
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