The No. 15 UNC men's tennis team (18-9 , 9-3 ACC) was defeated by the No. 2 Florida Gators (26-2 ,12-0 SEC), 4-0, in Gainesville, Florida in the NCAA Super Regionals.
What happened?
After a two-hour lightning delay, the match was finally on and began with intense doubles play.
In a top-25 matchup, UNC’s No. 16 duo of seniors Brian Cernoch and Mac Kiger took on the No. 5 duo of senior Sam Riffice and sophomore Ben Shelton in match one. This highly anticipated matchup went down to the wire with Riffice and Shelton pulling it out 6-4.
In match two, UNC’s first-year Casey Kania and sophomore Logan Zapp took on senior Andy Andrade and graduate Mattias Siimar, a Florida pair ranked No. 65 in doubles. Kania and Zapp won 6-2 in an upset win.
It came down to match three, where UNC seniors Henry Lieberman and Benjamin Sigouin took on first-year Nate Bonetto and senior Duarte Vale. This was the first time Sigouin and Lieberman played together since March 21. Vale and Bonetto forced a tiebreaker against the Tar Heels and pulled it out 7-6(2) for their 21st doubles point in a row.
Florida went up 1-0 in the match and headed to singles.
In singles, No. 2 Shelton defeated No. 33. Cernoch, 6-0, 6-1 to give the Gators their second point of the day.
On court six, Florida’s senior Josh Goodger defeated North Carolina’s Lieberman, 6-1, 6-2.
