UNC women’s tennis fights to the end in national championships, falls to UCLA

The saying “there is no ‘I’ in team” proved to be true when the North Carolina’s women’s tennis team battled against UCLA in Tuesday’s national championship game.

It all came down to the very last singles match, ending in the Tar Heels falling to the Bruins 4-3 in Athens, Ga.

After junior Caroline Price and sophomore Whitney Kay fell 8-2, UNC freshmen Jamie Loeb and Hayley Carter were down 5-2 in doubles. The duo fought back to take a 6-5 lead but fell behind 7-6. Loeb and Carter forced a tiebreaker but lost and surrendered the doubles point to the Bruins.

Loeb opened singles play by losing in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. In a showdown between the top players in the country, her 25-match winning streak ended.

But Carter cut UCLA’s lead to 2-1 by winning in straight sets — using the doubles loss as motivation to play harder in singles.

“I wanted to come out into singles super strong, and I was fortunate enough to be able to do that against a great player,” Carter said.

After Kate Vialle won and knotted the score at 2-2, the title match came down to three matches. And this time, the Tar Heels would not be relying on their top freshmen to determine the outcome.

Following sophomore Ashley Dai’s loss, senior Tessa Lyons battled back to win her tiebreaker 7-5 and tie the overall score at 3-3. Lyons said she was ready for the challenge presented in her match.

“That girl would’ve had to kill me to beat me,” she said.

The match came down to Price. Down 5-3, Price staved off elimination — pushing the game to its seventh deuce point.

But Kyle McPhillips gained the advantage and won the third set 6-3 to win the championship for UCLA. Coach Brian Kalbas said Price felt like she let the team down but didn’t blame her for the loss.

“Anybody that is out there giving everything they have, which is what she did, is not letting the team down,” he said. “And she just happened to be the last match out there and it just was unfortunate for her.”

UNC came into the tournament as the No. 7 seed. Lyons said the team wanted to gain respect.

“We’ve never gotten to this point,” she said. “I think most teams didn’t even think we could get this far.”

Contact the desk editor at  sports@dailytarheel.com.