It’s a term Caroline Price of the No. 3 North Carolina women’s tennis team is intimately familiar with.
Not only does she share initials with the phrase, she also has history with it. In May 2014, in the NCAA national championship match, Price stood on the baseline, staring down championship point for her opponent from UCLA.
Price would go on to lose the point — and the match — after seven deuces, forcing her to watch a team in a different shade of light blue celebrate a title UNC was so close to capturing.
Fast forward to Monday: Price again came face-to-face with championship point — this time it was for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va.
And this time she made no mistake, winning the point, the match and the title for UNC by a score of 4-1 over No. 9 Georgia; delivering North Carolina it’s second such title in the past three years.
“I lost the national championship for us last year,” said Price in a press conference. “It came down to my match. So in my mind I was like, ‘I’m a senior, I’m going to go for it because I’ve already lost it once.’ I didn’t want to go out losing.”
The Tar Heels certainly went out winners in a tournament they dominated up until the closing stages of the championship match.
Sixteen teams entered play Friday in a single-elimination style tournament. UNC blew through its first three opponents: No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Miami and No. 2 Florida by a combined score of 13-1.
