The No. 1 North Carolina men’s tennis team faced off against the No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers on Friday at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in a rematch of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor Championships. A match the Tar Heels won.
They were looking to prove that their victory earlier this season was not a fluke.
The Tar Heels (21-1, 6-1 ACC) beat the Cavaliers (16-3, 6-1 ACC) 4-3, earning the programs first victory over Virginia in Chapel Hill since 2006.
After redshirt-senior Andrew Gores and junior Ronnie Schneider lost their doubles match 6-0, the Tar Heels needed victories by their top two teams to secure the doubles point, and gain the early momentum.
After holding 5-4 leads on courts one and two, the pairings of senior Brett Clark and sophomore Robert Kelly and juniors Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray were forced into tiebreakers.
Schnur and Murray would close out first, winning 7-5, followed only minutes later by Clark and Kelly, who defeated the No. 2 ranked doubles team of senior Ryan Shane and junior Luca Corinteli, 8-6.
Kelly carried the momentum of the doubles win into his singles match, defeating J.C. Aragone in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 and giving his team a 2-0 lead. His victory avenged his loss to Aragone earlier this season, which is his only loss in singles competition this spring.
“I came out with a purpose. I played J.C. before twice, and got chopped twice,” he said. “He kind of had my number a couple of times, but third time's the charm.”
Virginia picked up its first point of the day when sophomore Henrik Wiersholm defeated Murray 6-2, 6-3. The Tar Heels answered back quickly with first-year Anu Kodali winning in two sets, both with a 6-4 score. His victory left the team needing only one more point to clinch the match, with the top three players still in action.