The No. 11 North Carolina men’s tennis team handled No. 21 N.C. State on Wednesday, winning 4-0 on a sunny afternoon at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.
What happened?
The doubles sets were tight to start the day, with the No. 34 duo of William Blumberg and Blaine Boyden taking down Michael Ogden and Alexis Galarneau of the Wolfpack in the opening match, 6-3, before the other two matches went to tiebreakers. Simon Soendergaard and Mac Kiger managed to snatch the win in their set, winning 7-6 (7-3) to give UNC the doubles point and the early advantage.
Singles play was decidedly more lopsided, with the Tar Heels getting out to early leads in four out of the six matches over N.C. State — who interestingly didn’t start a single American player in singles.
Boyden made quick work of his opponent Robert Turzak, sweeping the first set, 6-0, before winning the second, 6-2, to give UNC its second point of the day.
Brian Cernoch also swept his first set, but Igor Saveljic battled back for the Wolfpack to send the second set to a tiebreak. Cernoch would prevail, however, winning the second set 7-6 (7-4) to put the home team within one win of clinching the match.
The match on court one between No. 29 ranked Blumberg and No. 22 ranked Galarneau ended up being the decisive contest. Blumberg got out to an early lead and held on to win the first set 6-3, but Galarneau hung tough the entire way. On match point, Galarneau mishit a backhand to set up a powerful forehand from Blumberg that Galarneau could only put into the net, clinching the win for the Tar Heels.
With the home team up 4-0, the last three matches still in progress were called off as they wouldn’t have changed the final outcome of the match.
“I’m proud of my team,” UNC head coach Sam Paul said after the match. “They had to step in and compete. We knew N.C. State would come at us with everything.”
