Tennis freshman Jamie Loeb takes national title

Freshman Jamie Loeb felt a little nervous walking onto the court Sunday representing the North Carolina women’s tennis team in the finals of the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing, N.Y.

Loeb, the top seed in the tournament was slated to take on the No. 2 seed, Robin Anderson of UCLA — last year’s champion.

But with her family in the stands, and a sense of comfort being just 30 minutes away from her Ossining, N.Y. home, the nerves quickly vanished, and the freshman claimed a 6-3, 6-2 victory, and a national championship

“It gave me a lot of confidence and I still feel really proud of myself for being able to do this even though I was the top seed,” she said.

“There were a lot of girls (in the tournament) who had played this before and Robin won it last year. It really shows that anything is possible.”

Loeb is the first Tar Heel to win the individual National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships tournament, and improved her fall record to 19-1.

“Jamie had a great tournament,” Kalbas said. ”(She) played an unbelievable match (Sunday) in the finals.”

Also competing in the tournament was freshman Hayley Carter. Carter was not able to play tennis for the 10 days leading up to the tournament because of a concussion she sustained. She was cleared to play Wednesday, the day before the tournament began.

Carter, who was the seventh seed in the tournament, won three matches and faced Anderson in the semifinals.

Carter took a 5-1 lead in the first set against Anderson and had two match points, but she was unable to close out the set. She lost the match 7-5, 6-2.

“I feel pretty excited that I was even able to come to this tournament,” she said.

“I started off and I was playing pretty well and I got more comfortable as the tournament went on so I was pretty happy with my results.”

Carter and Loeb also teamed up to play in the doubles draw. They were selected to play in the tournament after winning the Carolina Regional Championship together, but lost in the second round. They did, however, beat the No. 8 preseason pair in the consolation round.

Kalbas was proud of his young duo’s performances.

“We have never had any freshmen get to the semifinals of this tournament (in singles), so to have two freshmen get as far as the semis and one freshman winning it is a tremendous accomplishment for both players,” Kalbas said.

“It just says a lot about how tough these players are both physically and mentally.”

sports@dailytarheel.com