On Sunday, the No. 25 North Carolina men’s tennis team earned a victory over No. 24 Georgia with a final tally of 6-1.
The Tar Heels started the match off on the right foot, earning the doubles point after besting their Bulldog opponents in two of the three matches. Sophomore Will Jansen and graduate student Karl Poling finished first by securing a 6-4 win. Georgia defeated graduate student Phillip Jordan and sophomore Benjamin Kittay, meaning the fate of the doubles point was in the hands of the final match of the group. Senior Peter Murphy and first-year Patrick Schoen won their hard-fought match in a tiebreaker over the Bulldogs. Their 7-6 victory propelled the Tar Heels to a 1-0 lead.
The singles side of the match saw a great deal of contention. Only three of the first sets finished with a score differential of more than three games. Jordan and graduate student Will Peters each won their first set and a tiebreak victory by Schoen, showing promise for the Tar Heels. Poling tacked on a tiebreak win, which gave the Tar Heels four first-set victories as each player entered their second frame. Jordan and Peters went on to win their second set by clinching two singles points for UNC and giving it a 3-0 advantage.
Poling won his second set in a much more convincing fashion than his first. He bested his Bulldog opponent 6-4 in the second set, earning the Tar Heels yet another point and giving them a 4-0 lead. This win gave North Carolina a comfortable buffer, knowing that even if Georgia won the final three singles matches they could not earn a match victory.
Jansen and Kittay dropped their first sets but came back to force a third frame after winning their second sets. Jansen used his early adversity to fuel a comeback, winning the third set in a dominating fashion to build North Carolina’s lead to 5-0. Schoen clinched his singles match, winning in two consecutive sets to extend the lead to 6-0. The Tar Heels suffered their only loss on the day in Kittay’s match, as he lost the third set.
