Jamie Loeb, Caroline Price take Saturday's loss to heart in Sunday's match

Jamie Loeb and Caroline Price led the No. 3 North Carolina women's tennis team to victories over Minnesota and Louisiana State this weekend — but only after learning from their loss on Saturday first.

“I think we came out a little nervous," Loeb said. "We haven’t had a lot of experience playing together, so the more we play, the better we will know our tendencies.” 

Loeb and Price played in the second doubles position on Saturday and suffered the team's only loss to Paula Rincon-Otero and Julia Courter 6-2. This is abnormal for the star sophomore Loeb and senior Price, who are two of the best players on the team.

“The other girls in doubles under pressure stepped up really well,” Price said.

UNC's other two doubles teams won their matches to take the doubles point against Minnesota, but Loeb and Price would not let this comfort them as they looked forward to their match against LSU Sunday.

“We could have done things different, but I still felt like we were in control," Price said.

On Sunday Loeb and Price played in the same position. But this time, they came out on top against LSU’s Skylar Holloway and Amanda Atanasson 6-1.

“Our energy was just a lot better," Price said. "We moved our feet a lot more. We were going for our shots more, we weren’t being hesitant.” 

Not only did Loeb and Price move faster within each point, but they moved the match along faster — so much so that they were the first team finished with their doubles match.

“It was night and day. They missed a lot of returns (Saturday)," Coach Brian Kalbas said Sunday. "(Minnesota) played extremely well and moved a lot. But today they lost the first game and then won six games in a row, so it was really nice to see them respond to these new combinations from last year, this year. On paper they look really good, they just kinda gotta gel together as a team and they did that today.”

Loeb and Price saw an improvement in their chemistry from the 24 hours prior. Communication had improved and they had better cohesion as a whole.

“I think we were way more active today," Loeb said. "Focusing point by point and just, you know, playing well, swinging out, and not looking too far ahead but staying in the moment and just following the game plan.”

Kalbas was more than satisfied with everyone’s improvement between day one and day two.

“I thought (Saturday) we were a little nervous, we played hesitant at times, especially in doubles,” Kalbas said. “(On Sunday) we executed extremely well, especially in doubles.”

sports@dailytarheel.com