Simon Soendergaard stood on Court Four, bouncing the ball once before hitting his serve.
The senior’s grunt echoed throughout Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, hit after hit. Only a couple fans looked on to his 6-0, 6-3 victory, clinching a definite win for the No. 4 North Carolina men’s tennis team.
The Tar Heels improved to 2-0 during their opening weekend after sweeping Wofford, 7-0.
"Wofford took the doubles point from Clemson yesterday, and that woke us up a little bit coming in," head coach Sam Paul said. "I was really pleased with our energy in doubles. We played better than we did the day before, so overall better.”
With four seniors, this year’s team features the largest graduating class since the 2015-16 team: Soendergaard, captain William Blumberg, No. 82 Josh Peck and captain Ladd Harrison.
“It’s scary,” Blumberg said. “It’s kind of crazy that it’s my last year. But (I'm) just making the most of it and kind of savoring every moment as we go.”
As the team works through injuries and looks to perfect its chemistry, all four seniors currently compete in both doubles and singles. And on Sunday, Blumberg/Brian Cernoch, No. 7 Soendergaard/Mac Kiger and Peck/Harrison swept Courts One, Two and Three, respectively.
“The best thing that we can do is control what we can control,” Blumberg said. “That’s our energy: everyone being positive, everyone staying with it, everyone playing the points that we want to.”
During warmups, the team was lacking energy, Blumberg said. But as the afternoon progressed, Cone-Kenfield came alive with chants from the players and cheers from fans.