North Carolina
Rice
Rice Deals UNC Tennis First Loss of Season
February 3, 2008 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 3, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - 10th-ranked North Carolina dropped its first match of the season to 41st-ranked Rice 4-3 on Sunday at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
In an afternoon that was full of surprises for the previously undefeated Tar Heels, the first came when the nationally third-ranked duo of junior Taylor Fogleman and sophomore Chris Kearney was upset in a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles to drop the tandem's record to 34-7 over the last year. That loss in the last doubles match completed gave Rice a one-point team lead heading into singles.
While UNC jumped out to a quick singles lead at 2-1 with back-to-back wins by senior David Stone and Fogleman, consecutive losses by senior Benjamin Carlotti, sophomore Stefan Hardy, and Kearney sealed the win for Rice, and a final victory by sophomore Clay Donato in a shortened third set was rendered meaningless in the final team result. However, it did give the sophomore transfer from Texas A&M his first dual-match singles win as a Tar Heel.
The match did have some personal highlights, however. Stone's straight-sets win was his seventh in a row, and the victory improved his season singles record to 14-2 overall.
North Carolina now has a week off before traveling to Columbus to play No, 3-4anked Ohio State next Sunday at 12 noon.
#41 Rice 4, #10 North Carolina 3
Records: UNC 4-1, Rice 2-1
Doubles
#1 Knupfer/Muller (Rice) d. Fogleman/Kearney [#3] (UNC) 9-8(2)
#2 Donato/Hardy (UNC) d. Wang/Zivojinovic 8-5
#3 Rosa/Tobias Scheil (Rice) d. Tristan Heinrich/Stone (Rice) 8-6
Order of Finish: #3, #2, #1
Singles
#1 Bruno Rosa (Rice) d. Benjamin Carlotti (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
#2 Christoph Muller [#34] (Rice) d. Stefan Hardy (UNC) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
#3 Ralph Knupfer [#45] (Rice) d. Chris Kearney(UNC) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
#4 Clay Donato (UNC) d. Filip Zivojinovic (Rice) 6-7 (0), 7-5, 1-0 (10-3)
#5 Taylor Fogleman (UNC) d. Chong Wang (Rice) 6-4, 7-6(4)
#6 David Stone (UNC) d. Dennis Polyakov (Rice) 6-1, 6-2
Order of Finish: #6, #5, #1, #2, #3, #4
Players Mentioned
