North Carolina
Maryland
Red Hot Tar Heels Win Ninth Straight
March 28, 2008 | Men's Tennis
March 28, 2008
College Park, Md. - The ninth-ranked UNC Tar Heels continued their remarkable run on Saturday, losing only one singles match en route to a 6-1 victory over the 63rd-ranked Maryland Terrapins. The Tar Heels, who owned a record of 4-3 as late as February 16th, have reeled off nine straight victories, seven of which came against ranked opponents. Saturday's match was more of the same for ultra-efficient North Carolina, as all of the Tar Heels' five singles wins came in straight sets, and UNC won twice as many doubles games as Maryland.
The match began with a doubles sweep, kicked off by a dominant 8-2 win by seniors David Stone and Tristan Heinrich at the third spot. Heinrich and Stone are now 3-0 since re-entering the doubles lineup for the first time since the Rice match in early February, and the three wins all came in ACC matches. Sophomores Stefan Hardy and Clay Donato were soon to follow at the number two spot, scoring an 8-4 win over Nickolai Nielsen and David Kwon. With the doubles point decided, the nation's fourth-ranked doubles pair of Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearney finished off an 8-6 win to seal the sweep.
The Tar Heels didn't notch down the level of competition after doubles, either. Donato got UNC going with a 6-1, 6-1 victory that was his eighth straight win in singles. Following Donato's win, Fogleman upped the Tar Heel match lead to 3-0 with a victory that was his seventh straight and his 13th win out of 14 matches dating back to a preseason match on January 19th. Maryland's Amit Inbar scored the Terrapin's lone point after Fogleman's match with a 6-2, 6-0 win at the number one singles spot, but 71st-ranked Chris Kearney answered emphatically with a 6-4, 6-0 win that clinched the match for UNC. Following Kearney's match, Hardy and Will Plyler combined for a 24-8 game advantage at the second and sixth spots, respectively, to finish the match out at a 6-1 score in North Carolina's favor.
The Tar Heels will face an unranked foe for the first time since the Navy match, as their next match will be against Boston College, a rare unranked team in the ultra-competitive ACC. The match will be held at 11 AM ET on Sunday, March 30th, on Boston College's home turf in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
#9 North Carolina 6, #63 Maryland 1
Records: UNC 13-3 (3-0), Maryland 9-6 (1-5)
Doubles
#1 Fogleman/Kearney [#4] (UNC) d. Inbar/Fetbroyt (MD) 8-6
#2 Hardy/Donato [#43] (UNC) d. Nielsen/Kwon (MD) 8-4
#3 David Stone/Tristan Heinrich (UNC) d. Alex Aksanov/Coleman (MD) 8-2
Order of finish: 3, 2*, 1
Singles
#1 Amit Inbar [#68] (MD) d. Benjamin Carlotti [#112] (UNC) 6-2, 6-0
#2 Stefan Hardy [#78] (UNC) d. David Kwon (MD) 6-2, 6-1
#3 Clay Donato (UNC) d. Boris Fetbroyt (MD) 6-1, 6-1
#4 Chris Kearney [#71] (UNC) d. Nickolai Nielsen (MD) 6-4, 6-0
#5 Taylor Fogleman (UNC) d. Michael Coleman (MD) 6-2, 6-2
#6 Will Plyler (UNC) d. Roshan Potarazu (MD) 6-2, 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 5, 1, 4*, 2, 6
Players Mentioned
