Tar Heels top Irish

Notre Dame was unable to keep up with No. 10 North Carolina, and the Irish dropped their match to the Tar Heels by a score of 6-1 in Chapel Hill on Sunday. The Irish loss concludes a weekend in which they were unable to defeat two teams ranked in the top 10, starting with a match at Virginia on Friday. North Carolina (16-3, 5-1 ACC) features four singles players ¾ freshmen Hayley Carter and Jamie Loeb, junior Caroline Price and sophomore Whitney Kay ¾ and two doubles teams ranked in the ITA. Carter and Loeb form one of the doubles teams and are ranked seventh in the country. Loeb is currently the No. 1 singles player in the country, while Carter is No. 5. The lone victory for the Irish (8-8, 2-6 ACC) came from sophomore Quinn Gleason, who was able to hold off Carter by winning back-to-back sets, 6-4, 6-4. Senior Britney Sanders also put up a strong performance against Loeb, dropping the first set 6-3 but forcing a tiebreaker in the second, which she eventually lost, 7-5. Loeb and Carter also defeated Gleason and Sanders in doubles play, beating the Irish pair, 8-3. Perhaps the tightest match came during the singles competition between Price and Irish senior Jennifer Kellner. Although Price came out on top in the end, Kellner forced extra games in both sets, ultimately coming up short, 7-6, 7-6 (7-5). Notre Dame resumes play Wednesday against Marquette. Match play is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.