Men's tennis drops ACC quarter?nal to Wake

CARY — With a No. 3 seed and a first-round bye, No. 18 North Carolina men’s tennis entered the ACC Tournament with high expectations.

One match was all it took for them to be shattered.

The Tar Heels fell to No. 23 Wake Forest for the second time this season on Friday, making an early exit in the tournament’s quarterfinals after a 4-3 loss.

“It was pretty disappointing for us,” said UNC senior Andrew Crone. “We all had the feeling that we had a chance to win ACCs, and that everything was going right. Wake Forest had a good team, but we thought we could get them.”

North Carolina went ahead 1-0 early after taking the doubles point, but bad luck and sloppy play cost the Tar Heels in singles.

UNC junior Stefan Hardy rolled his ankle on the first point of his match on court three and never recovered, losing a quick two-setter to opponent Iain Atkinson.

Hardy said the injury would not prevent him from practicing or playing in the NCAA Tournament.

After sophomore Brennan Boyajian lost his match in straight sets as well, UNC looked to its top player, senior Clay Donato, to get the team back on track.

But after taking a commanding 5-0 third-set lead against Wake Forest’s Steven Forman, Donato fell apart, getting broken three straight times and dropping the next seven games to lose the match and put North Carolina in a 3-1 hole.

“Clay was obviously playing good tennis and put himself in a good position,” UNC coach Sam Paul said. “But (Forman) picked it up and turned it on.”

The Tar Heels bounced back to tie the match after victories by Crone and freshman Jose Hernandez.

Crone was back in the singles lineup after sitting out the team’s last match at Florida State, and his singles win was his first in his last seven matches.

“I’ve been playing well in doubles lately with Jose,” Crone said. “Having confidence in that and in singles just brought my game up. Unfortunately we didn’t win as a team, which is all that matters.”

With a berth in the tournament semifinals at stake, the match came down to court five, where Tar Heel sophomore Cameron Ahari was battling Danny Kreyman in a back-and-forth third set.

Ahari and Kreyman broke each other’s first two service games to open the set, then held serve until the set went to a tiebreaker.

In the end it was Kreyman who came out on top, winning the tiebreaker 7-2 and the match for the Demon Deacons.

Paul said he was impressed by his team’s heart despite the loss.

“I think Cam had a great effort, I think Clay had a great effort, I think everyone had a great effort,” Paul said. “Now we just have to pack up and get ready for NCAAs.”

Hardy said he thought the team would be able to regain its momentum by the NCAA Championships, which begin on May 14 for team competition.

“We had a lot of chances to stick it to them and it was unfortunate that it went that way,” Hardy said. “We’ve just got to look at it and say that we were right there with them. We’re still getting better, and I think we’ll have reached the height of our abilities heading into the NCAA tournament.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.