North Carolina
Baylor
UNC Shocks Baylor with Upset Win
February 16, 2008 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 16, 2008
Seattle, WA - 12th-seeded and 13th-nationally ranked North Carolina secured a huge victory on Saturday in the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships, defeating the nation's number four team and the 2004 national champions, Baylor. The Tar Heels, who had been on a three-game losing streak prior to the match, looked to their young stars for leadership, as the foursome of sophomores Clay Donato, Chris Kearney, and Stefan Hardy, and junior Taylor Fogleman, accounted for all of the wins in the match.
"It was a very good win," Head Coach Sam Paul said after the match. "I'm proud of the way our guys competed after losing a couple in a row. We've had to play three of the toughest teams in the nation the last three matches [#3 Ohio State, #5 Mississippi, and #4 Baylor], and I'm proud of the way we've competed in those matches."
UNC opened up doubles with an 8-3 win by Kearney, but instead of partnering with Fogleman, his teammate with whom he achieved a national number three ranking, he was matched with Donato. After Baylor answered with an 8-3 victory of their own, it was Fogleman and his new partner, Hardy, who nailed down the final match at the score of 9-7 to deliver the team point to the Tar Heels.
"We wanted to mix it up a bit," said Coach Paul in reference to the new doubles lineup. "[Fogleman and Kearney] had two tough losses to Rice and Ohio State, so we switched it up. We've got lots of great personnel here, lots of guys with good skills, so we know we can win with a different lineup."
The diversity of skill and depth in the lineup was evident in singles as the number three, four, and five players clinched the match for North Carolina. Donato opened up singles play with a bang, dispatching the nation's 80th ranked player, David Galic, 6-1, 6-2. Baylor then came marching back with three straight singles wins by Dominik Mueller, Lars Poerschke, and the nation's tenth-ranked player, Denes Lukacs. However, it was Kearney and Fogleman who would come through in the end, as the former delivered a straight sets victory to bring the team score even at 3-3, and the latter battled back from a first set loss to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, sealing the match in UNC's favor, 4-3.
UNC improves to 5-3 on the season with the victory, and will face 9th-seeded and 9th-nationally ranked Notre Dame tomorrow at 11 AM PT at the Seattle Tennis Club. The match against Notre Dame will be the Tar Heels' final match of the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships, after which they will have 14 matches until the ACC Championships--11 of which will be against opponents currently ranked in the Nation's Top 50.
"We don't really care about the rankings," Coach Paul remarked on the Tar Heels' remaining opponents. "We know that the rankings will flip around a lot. Our goals are very high, and we just want to come out and play hard every match."
#12 North Carolina 4, #4 Baylor 3
Records: UNC 5-3, Baylor 7-2
Doubles
#1 Galic/Rux (Baylor) d. David Stone / Lenny Gullan (UNC) 8-3
#2 Fogleman/Hardy (UNC) d. Poerschke/Mueller (Baylor) 9-7
#3 Donato/Kearney (UNC) d. Lukacs/Bucko (Baylor) 8-3
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
#1 Lars Poerschke (Baylor) d. Benjamin Carlotti (UNC) 6-3, 7-5
#2 Denes Lukacs [#10] (Baylor) d. Stefan Hardy (UNC) 6-1, 7-5
#3 Clay Donato (UNC) d. David Galic [#80] (Baylor) 6-1, 6-2
#4 Chris Kearney (UNC) d. Gwen Corches (Baylor) 7-6(5), 6-2
#5 Taylor Fogleman (UNC) d. Jordan Rux (Baylor) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
#6 Dominik Mueller (Baylor) d. Will Plyler (UNC) 6-0, 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 6, 1, 2, 4, 5
UNC Team Indoor Notes
Players Mentioned
