UNC men’s tennis suffers third straight loss to ranked opponent

No. 17 North Carolina lost a third straight match against a ranked opponent Sunday night when it fell to No. 2 Ohio State 6-1.

The Buckeyes are the sixth ranked opponent the Tar Heels (3-4) have faced this year, only one of which has been played at home.

“Even though we’ve lost four matches, they’ve all been competitive, and if we can just improve on some little things, we’ll get there,” UNC coach Sam Paul said.

The loss is the Tar Heels’ most lopsided defeat since a weather-shortened 4-0 loss to Duke in last year’s ACC semifinals.

The Buckeyes swept the doubles point, including an 8-4 victory by the nation’s top-ranked tandem of Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola against UNC’s Brennan Boyajian and Esben Hess-Olesen.

Of Ohio State’s six singles players, five of them are ranked in the top 110 by the ITA. Paul said the Buckeyes have won 137 consecutive home matches, the longest active streak in collegiate men’s tennis.

“Despite the loss, I think we learned a lot of things about our team,” Paul said. “It’s always tough to play the hottest team in the country.”

Four Buckeyes won their singles matches in straight sets. The Tar Heels’ top-ranked player, No. 32 Jose Hernandez, lost in his first match back to Ohio State’s No. 16 Buchanan 6-4, 6-4.

“Chase has been playing well. He was playing on his home court and they have such a long winning streak, so they had a lot of momentum,” Hernandez said. “It’s motivation for us to keep working and do better in the outdoor season.”

Hernandez missed three of UNC’s matches while representing his native Dominican Republic in the Davis Cup and is now 1-4 in singles matches this season.

“He’s played such good players, and he was a little banged up in December,” Paul said. “If anything, I think the Davis Cup helped him in terms of competitiveness.”

UNC’s 21-year-old freshman Hess-Olesen defeated the Buckeyes’ only unranked singles player, Peter Kobelt, in three sets.

“In school he’s a freshman, but he has a lot of experience so he’s more like a senior in tennis,” Hernandez said.

Hess-Olesen lost a first-set tiebreaker but came back to beat Kobelt 6-4 in the second set. With the other singles matches finished and Ohio State having already clinched the match, Hess-Olesen salvaged the Tar Heels’ only point in a 10-7 third set super-tiebreaker win.

Hess-Olesen improved to 5-1 in singles matches this season, the best record for any Tar Heel that has played in multiple matches.

“He’s competing very well. I just think he’s a great competitor and has worked hard in practice,” Paul said.

Fellow freshman Oystein Steiro was the only other Tar Heel to win a set Sunday, but eventually lost in three sets to No. 107 Connor Smith.

After a tough non-conference schedule, UNC will travel to Boston College to open the ACC and outdoor match season on Wednesday.

“I don’t mind playing anywhere,” Hernandez said. “But I think we’re definitely an outdoor team.”

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