Women’s tennis opens season with pair of wins

This year’s North Carolina women’s tennis team is different from the one that won the 2013 ITA National Team Indoor Championship and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament last year.

The team lost three of its best players to graduation following one of the best years in the program’s recent memory.

But with the addition of two sought-after freshmen, Jamie Loeb and Hayley Carter, different isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Loeb has already built a nice resume at UNC, having won the single’s championship at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in November.

And on Wednesday, both Loeb and Carter, ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in the nation respectively, took part in their first dual match of their career, facing a nationally ranked Elon team and the UNC-Greensboro Spartans at home, helping the Tar Heels win both matches 4-0.

“This year we got a huge shot in the arm with two freshmen who are playing at the top of the lineup,” said coach Brian Kalbas. “It’s pretty rare.”

The dual match’s first contest came against Elon, who is currently the No. 75 team in the nation.

Elon has visited UNC the past 10 years, but in none of those matches did the Phoenix come away with even a single point.

Wednesday’s match was more of the same, as the Tar Heels dominated Elon, 4-0.

Loeb and Carter began the day with a 6-2 doubles victory against Elon’s Taylor Casey and Maria Camara Ruiz. Caroline Price and Whitney Kay, the No. 10 doubles pair in the nation, followed with a 6-1 victory to secure the doubles point for the Tar Heels.

In singles play, the Tar Heels continued their dominance, winning the first three matches to secure a victory in the day’s first match.

Sophomore Ashley Dai began singles play with a commanding victory against Elon’s Bryn Khoury, 6-0, 6-1.

Tessa Lyons and Loeb added two wins of their own, ending the match early. At that point, all three of the other singles matches were going the Tar Heels’ way.

UNC-G had a similar streak to that of Elon’s, accumulating no points in the past six meetings with the Tar Heels.

And again, the Spartans threw up a donut, as the Tar Heels cruised to a 4-0 victory.

Lyons and Laura Slater finished their doubles match first, grabbing a 6-0 victory against UNC-G’s Amy Ellis and Stephanie Falcon. Price and Carter followed with a 6-2 win about 10 minutes later to win the doubles point.

Carter didn’t get a chance to finish her singles match against Elon. So when the time came for her to face-off against UNC-G’s Yasmin Franco, she went straight for the gas and never looked back.

Carter, who had to withdraw from the Freeman Memorial Championship in Las Vegas, Nev., over the weekend with concussion-like symptoms, cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win.

“I was definitely really excited — I think I was jumping around in the locker room a little more than everyone else,” Carter said.

“Playing in my first dual match after a long fall season was definitely a great experience.”

Loeb and Lyons followed Carter with two dominant victories of their own to secure the second win of the day for UNC.

At the end of the day, the new Tar Heel women’s tennis team showed it could be an exciting sequel to the one that experienced such great success last year.

But even after a dominant pair of victories on Wednesday, Kalbas still sees a difficult road ahead for the Tar Heels.

“We have the smallest amount of players that we’ve ever had, so we’re going to need everybody to contribute in order to be successful,” Kalbas said.

“We did that today. Everybody played, and everybody contributed.”