Collegiate tennis is designated a team sport but only one of the seven points that make up the scoring for each match involves more than one person - the doubles point.
And North Carolina's pair of Sanaz Marand and Sophie Grabinski ranked No. 8 at the beginning of the season plays a critical part in determining who wins that essential point.
Lately though they've been struggling in the No. 1 spot" suffering an 8-3 loss Sunday to Megan Alexander and Marrit Boonstra of Florida.
""We kept telling each other that we knew what we had to do but we didn't execute"" Marand said.
At the ITA National Indoors, the combo won once, lost once and were trailing 7-5 to Northwestern's top pair when the doubles point was decided.
Marand's frustration was evident Sunday, when there were several miscommunications between the two. Down 6-2, Marand made an error and then, with the ball trickling back to her, nailed it point-blank back into the net as if trying to erase her mistake.
Yet Grabinski and Marand remain relatively upbeat despite their recent funk. Stability is one of the strengths of the duo, as the only UNC doubles team to play together in all nine meets this season.
It helps that we're friends off the court" and we do a lot of things together off the court so we know each other's personalities" Grabinski said.
UNC looks to its No. 1 doubles pair for leadership, and the duo's play next weekend in a rematch with Northwestern certainly will be a factor in the team's success.
Winning the doubles point is crucial to team tennis because it gives each of the six singles players momentum going into their individual matches, said coach Brian Kalbas.
When the doubles point is lost, it puts pressure on the entire team. The Tar Heels have lost the doubles point in each of their three losses this season.
(Florida) really were confident and established their momentum"" Kalbas said of the team's win of the doubles point.
Beating a top-10 team and losing the doubles point is very difficult to do.""
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