After playing through seven matches in five days , sophomore Brett Clark’s run through the ITA Carolinas Regional tournament ended Monday with a 7-5, 6-4 loss in the championship round.
On the way to the championship match, No. 14 seed Clark captured impressive victories, including the defeat of both No. 2 seed Tsvetan Mihov of South Carolina 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 16 and fifth-seeded Cameron Silverman of Elon 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals.
In the championship match Clark remained competitive, but seventh-seeded Joran Vliegen of East Carolina proved to be too much, and he defeated Clark 7-5, 6-4.
“I knew it would be a long tournament, so my mentality was just to take one match at a time,” Clark said. “I thought I got better and better each match and I competed as hard as I could.”
Coach Sam Paul praised Clark’s effort in the tournament.
“Those wins are very good,” Paul said. “(Clark) played a very solid tournament. Brett fought, he stayed in there, but you got to give credit to (Vilegen). He was the better player.”
No other player besides Clark made it past the round of 16 in the singles tournament.
In total, 11 UNC players participated in the singles tournament, including doubles partners junior Oystein Steiro and senior Nelson Vick, who played against each other in the third round of the tournament. Vick won the match, 7-6(5), 6-2, but lost his next match, falling to No. 1 seed Romain Bogaerts of Wake Forest, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.
In the doubles tournament, Vick and Steiro cruised to the quarterfinals, defeating Rodrigo Encinas and Alon Faiman from College of Charleston, Nick Horton and Thomas Weigel of N.C. State, and Jimmy Dougherty and Randy Phillips of UNC-Greensboro.
