John McEnroe Tennis Academy (JMTA) student Jamie Loeb won the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship, held at Baylor University’s Hurd Tennis Center, Monday. The University of North Carolina sophomore Loeb, seeded No. 7, closed out Carol Zhao of Stanford, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the final for her fifth three-set win in her six matches. Fellow JMTA standout, freshman Noah Rubin of Wake Forest University, advanced to the men’s finals before falling to Ryan Shane of the University of Virginia, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Loeb, who was the UNC Athlete of the Year and ACC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year in her second year in Chapel Hill after ranking No. 1 in the country as a freshman, led in the first set before play was moved indoors because of inclement weather. Zhao, who entered the event seeded second, rallied from 2-4 to win the second set before Loeb finished the match off in the third.
After taking the first set, No. 7 seed Rubin had a chance at 5-4 to close out the match on his serve, but was broken by No. 8 Shane, who went on to win the tiebreaker at 7-4 and cruised to the third-set win.