Two players giving all they had, playing as fast as they could, stealing quick peaks over to the scoreboard at every opportunity.
It was a competition in the truest form, but for No. 7 North Carolina men’s tennis players Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray, the battle was not with opposing players, but rather with each other.
The Tar Heels held a 3-1 lead over No. 38 Virginia Tech in Saturday’s match at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, and UNC needed one more win — one it would eventually get — to secure the team victory and to clinch a place in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February.
With both players leading in the third and final set, needing just one more game, or four more points, to send the Tar Heels through, the race was on.
Schnur thought he was going to be the one to do it. The Tar Heels’ top player and the No. 2 overall player in country had battled to give himself a match point. But just as the sophomore from Ontario was about to uncork a trademark serve, he heard Murray roar out a deafening, “Come on!”
Schnur could only smile and set down his racket, knowing he had lost the race but that his team had won the match.
“It was really exciting,” Murray said. “We have a lot of really great guys, so it doesn’t really matter who clinches, because we’re happy no matter what.”
