UNC whacks the Wolfpack

CARY — On a blistering hot Thursday at the Cary Tennis Center, the North Carolina men’s tennis team scorched N.C. State with a decisive 4-0 victory and earned the right to advance to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

The No. 45 Tar Heels (15-9) had not won a match since defeating Virginia Tech on April 2.

UNC coach Sam Paul was pleased with his team’s performance. “They keep bouncing back, and they keep fighting hard," Paul said. “And that’s what I’m really proud of this group for.”

MEN'S TENNIS N.C. State 0 UNC 4

Paul said he was especially proud of the team’s doubles performance. UNC lost a number of close matches during the regular season in which the doubles point proved to be the deciding factor.

“I think it was key for us to win the doubles point,” Paul said. “Then we just settled down and played.”

Junior Brad Pomeroy agreed. After being down 4-2, Pomeroy and teammate Geoff Boyd rallied to win their doubles match 8-5, clinching the point.

“We’ve been in a hole lately doubles-wise,” Pomeroy said. “We’d lost four really tight matches, and coming back out of that, we felt like we really got our feet under us finally.”

With renewed confidence, Pomeroy proceeded to make short work of his singles opponent, Nick Cavaday, winning 6-0, 6-4 in straight sets.

UNC’s No. 1 singles player, Raian Luchici, followed with a straight-set victory of his own shortly thereafter. He allowed his opponent, Conor Taylor, to win only a single game.

Senior Jonathan Janda then sealed the Tar Heels’ victory with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the Wolfpack’s William Noblitt, handing Noblitt just his fourth loss of the season.

“It felt good,” Janda said. “I lost to him earlier this year, so it was nice to come back and beat him this time.”

Janda had a personal interest in winning the match as well.

“(Noblitt is) from my hometown, so we’ve got a lot of history together.” Janda said. “It was nice to clinch it.”

The match against N.C. State (15-12) also marked the return of UNC’s No. 6 singles player, Benjamin Carlotti, who missed the team’s past four games due to an extended illness.

Paul said he was glad to have the starter back in time for the tournament. “We lost four in a row without him,” Paul said.

As impressive a victory as they had, the Tar Heels have already begun to think about their match against No. 8 Duke today. When the two teams met little more than a week ago, Duke thrashed UNC 7-0.

“They really beat us very badly, and we’d like to have another shot just to compete against them again,” Paul said.

Janda said UNC has the mental advantage in the match.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” Janda said. “All the pressure’s on them, so we’re just gonna go out there and swing away.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.