Hardy leads men’s tennis through tough Ohio State match

Stefan Hardy triumphantly raised his arms and yelled after an overhead slam put him two points away from a 4-2 lead in the second set of his singles match against No. 103 Ille Van Engelen.

The timing of the celebration seemed strange, but the North Carolina senior had already missed multiple slams earlier in the set.

After losing three straight singles matches against ranked opponents, No. 107 Hardy took out his frustration on Van Engelen in a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 victory.

“I’m certainly glad to get a win underneath my belt against a top-five team,” Hardy said. “For my confidence, I really needed it.”

Hardy said his on-court movement has significantly improved since recovering from a knee injury which kept him sidelined for two months.

“I played really smart and didn’t let up on him,” Hardy said. “But I would rather lose and have my team win tonight.”

For No. 24 North Carolina, Hardy’s singles win was a positive in an otherwise dismal 6-1 loss against No. 4 Ohio State.

Four of the other five Tar Heels lost their singles matches in straight sets. William Parker won his first set against No. 55 Devin McCarthy, but lost the match in a 10-point tiebreaker.

This makes three straight losses against top 30 opponents for the Tar Heels since defeating then-No. 23 Georgia Tech on Jan. 29.

“Obviously we have some things we need to work on, but I liked our approach today,” Hardy said. “The team fought hard, but we need to work on strategy and tactics.”

In the last two matches against Auburn and Ohio State, Hardy’s singles victory has been UNC’s only point in either match. UNC lost on the road Saturday against Auburn 7-0.

Coach Sam Paul blamed the consecutive lackluster performances on difficult opponents.

“Auburn has one of the best teams they’ve had in a long time, we just have to get tougher,” Paul said. “We didn’t have much time coming off of the match against Auburn.”

The Tar Heels will have to acclimate to short rests if they are to survive a five-game road trip starting Sunday at Notre Dame. The first three matches will be played against non-conference opponents all ranked in the top 30.

UNC will not play at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center again until they host Maryland on March 25.

“We’re just still not playing a complete match. We didn’t play our best today,” Paul said. “It’s a long season, we’ve got a lot of matches left to play.”

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