Men’s tennis picks up 2 Sunday wins

Two starkly contrasting games, yet the same outcome.

On Sunday, the North Carolina men’s tennis team added two more wins to its total this season, beating both Texas Christian, 4-3, and North Carolina Central, 7-0.

Although these two opponents were quite different, coach Sam Paul said that he does not worry about who they are playing.

“ Its not about them, its about us,” Paul said. “Its about us competing and getting ready, staying disciplined and focused on what we are supposed to be doing. I don’t care about who we are playing. I care more about our mentality.”

One of the major differences in the two matches was the doubles play.

Against TCU, the Tar Heels dropped their first doubles point of the season.

Sophomore Brett Clark and freshman Brayden Schnur lost the first doubles game 6-2. Freshmen Ronnie Schneider and Jack Murray then tied doubles at one apiece with a 6-3 win against the Eagles. But junior Esben Hess-Olesen and senior Nelson Vick could not clinch the doubles point, losing 6-5 (7-3).

After singles wins from Vick, Schnieder, and Clark, the Tar Heels grabbed a 3-1 lead. But the Horned Frogs answered by winning two singles of their own, evening the score at 3-3. Finally, Schnur put the match away with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory, giving UNC it’s smallest margin of victory of the season, 4-3.

Junior Oystein Steiro, who recently re-entered the lineup after struggling with a hip flexor injury, said that the victory against TCU was much needed.

“This win against TCU was big, I think,” Steiro said. “We lost to them last year and it was a tight match today as well. We got a little eye-opener in the doubles there and I think it was a very important win for us.”

The match against NCCU went a little different. The Tar Heels rolled through the doubles play, with victories from the Steiro-Vick combo at No.1, and James Coxe, a redshirt junior, and Clark at No. 2.

North Carolina then went unbeaten in singles, with Schneider, Clark, Steiro, Murray, freshman Johan Skattum, and sophomore Stuart DePaolo all winning in straight sets.

Vick, who transferred from Ohio State after his sophomore year, said that the team is winning because of the chemistry.

“This is definitely one of the more fun teams I have ever been on,” Vick said. “We have a great group of guys, just a great team chemistry. We have had a lot of tough matches so far and we have won pretty much all of them. And it’s fun because we all play for each other.”

“Sometimes you see other teams, they aren’t actually friends, they just happen to wear the same uniform. But we actually compete and fight for each other and you see that by the way everyone competes hard everyday.”