North Carolina
Virginia
UNC Falls To Virginia in Second Round of NCAA Tournament
May 9, 2009 | Men's Tennis
May 9, 2009
- 2008-09 UNC Men's Tennis Statistics
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - North Carolina's season came to a close on Saturday afternoon after losing a second-round NCAA Championships match to the tournament's overall No. 1 seed, Virginia.
The Tar Heels took one doubles match and fought to close finishes in nearly every singles match, but couldn't overcome a one-point disadvantage after doubles play in the 4-0 loss.
"I want to congratulate Virginia on the match, because they were the better team today," said head coach Sam Paul. "I'm very proud of my team and my upperclassmen leaders, though. From where we started to where we are today, I'm really excited about the future."
North Carolina started out strong behind the efforts of All-ACC doubles pair Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman. The two, who have also been chosen to participate in the individual doubles portion of the NCAA Tournament, beat Virginia's top doubles team of Dominic Inglot and Michael Shabaz for the second time this year. Donato and Fogleman have compiled a record of 33-8 together in 2008-09, and Fogleman is currently three wins away from 100 career doubles victories with only his NCAA individual doubles' matches left to play.
"Playing with Clay has been an absolute pleasure," said Fogleman. "We've had some great results this year, and we're headed into the NCAA [individual doubles tournament] with a lot of confidence."
Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, the Cavaliers' No. 2 and No. 3 doubles pairs won their matches to clinch the team point for Virginia. Heading into singles play, the Cavaliers held a 1-0 advantage over UNC.
Virginia's 27th-ranked Michael Shabaz and Drew Courtney were quick to extend that lead, each recording 6-2, 6-1 victories at the No. 3 and No. 5 singles spots, respectively. At that point, Donato and Fogleman had both battled to tough 7-5 first-set losses, and Cameron Ahari was locked in a tiebreaker after reaching a 6-6 first-set tie with No. 90 Lee Singer. Once Singer prevailed 7-3 in the tiebreaker, Donato, Fogleman, Crone and Ahari had their work cut out for them as each needed to come back from a first-set loss to win two sets in a row.
Virginia's 26th-ranked Sanam Singh derailed the Tar Heels' hopes of an upset by emerging the victor from a tightly contested second set with Fogleman. His 7-5, 6-4 win delivered the match and a Sweet 16 trip to the Cavaliers.
Even in defeat, though, the Tar Heels can look back on the 2008-09 knowing that they exceeded many people's expectations and made major strides of improvement. After losing two-thirds of their starting lineup from last season's Sweet 16 team, coach Paul had to rely on an abundance of freshmen to fill those vacancies. While the team didn't reach the same level of success as last year's group, they never lost to a team outside of the ITA's top 50, and they collected five wins against top-50 teams over the course of the season. Freshmen Brennan Boyajian, Zach Hunter, Luke Mojica and Alex Rafiee all gained substantial experience in 2008-09, and towards the end of the year, Ahari made huge strides in solidifying play at North Carolina's No. 6 singles spot.
"We're all really excited for next year," said Ahari. "We have a great recruiting class coming in and we're looking forward to going far, maybe even winning a NCAA title."
While the rest of the team won't be competing again until the upcoming fall, Donato and Fogleman will travel to College Station, Texas for the individual portion of the NCAA Championships that will take place from May 18 through May 27. As mentioned earlier, the pair will compete in the doubles tournament, but Donato will also compete in the singles tournament while Fogleman will serve as an alternate. Updates will be posted to TarHeelBlue.com about the times and dates of the matches as the NCAA releases that information.
#1 Virginia 4, #37 UNC 0
Records: Virginia 31-0, UNC 17-11
Doubles
1: Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman [#17] (UNC) d. Dominic Inglot and Michael Shabaz [#12] (Virginia) 8-3
2: Houston Barrick and Sanam Singh [#13] (Virginia) d. Andrew Crone and Alex Rafiee (UNC) 8-5
3: Drew Courtney and Lee Singer (Virginia) d. Brennan Boyajian and Zach Hunter (UNC) 8-5
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1: Dominic Inglot [#14] (Virginia) vs. Clay Donato [#32] (UNC) 7-5, 4-4 DNF
2: Sanam Singh [#26] (Virginia) d. Taylor Fogleman [#63] (UNC) 7-5, 6-4
3: Michael Shabaz [#27] (Virginia) d. Brennan Boyajian (UNC) 6-2, 6-1
4: Houston Barrick [#70] (Virginia) vs. Andrew Crone (UNC) 6-3, 4-3 DNF
5: Drew Courtney (Virginia) d. Zach Hunter (UNC) 6-2, 6-1
6: Lee Singer [#90] (Virginia) vs. Cameron Ahari (UNC) 7-6(3), 3-1 DNF
Order of finish: 3, 5, 2
Players Mentioned
