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Tar Heels upset No. 12 South Carolina 4-2
February 13, 2006 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 13, 2006
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The University of North Carolina men's tennis team scored its biggest victory of the season Monday afternoon as the Tar Heels, ranked 27th nationally, upset No. 12 South Carolina 4-2 in a match held at the USC Indoor Facility in Columbia, S.C. The victory, Carolina's third in a row over the Gamecocks, moved the Tar Heels to 10-0 on the year. It is the first time since 1978 that either team has garnered a three-match winning streak in the series. UNC won nine successive matches over the Gamecocks over a 10-season period from 1969-78.
The Tar Heels earned the doubles point to begin the match behind victories from the pairings of Raian Luchici and Brad Pomeroy at No. 1 and Lenny Gullan and David Stone at No. 2. Luchici and Pomeroy, the top doubles team in the country, defeated South Carolina's Thomas Stoddard and Tom Eklund 8-3 to score the first victory for the Tar Heels. Gullan and Stone followed suit with an 8-2 victory over Jamie Cuellar and Geraldo Knorr.
Carolina increased its lead to 2-0 as Luchici defeated Eklund 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles, but the Gamecocks got on the board and cut the lead to 2-1 after Cuellar defeated Tar Heel senior Derek Porter 6-3, 7-5 at No. 3.
South Carolina threatened to tie the match at 2-2 as the Gamecocks' Yevgeny Supeko took the first set from Pomeroy 6-2. Pomeroy, however, would storm back to take the second set 6-4 and ultimately defeated Supeko in a third set tiebreaker 7-6 (5). The come-from-behind victory from a set down is Pomeroy's third in a row against the Gamecocks over the past three season and the 11th of his career. Overall.
Pomeroy's victory proved to be critical as the Tar Heels dropped the next match, a three-set thriller between North Carolina's Benjamin Carlotti and South Carolina's Knorr. Carlotti and Knorr split the first two sets of the match before Knorr went up 5-2, 40-love in the third set. Carlotti battled back, fighting off three match points, to cut Knorr's lead to 5-3. Carlotti would win two more games before ultimately losing the match 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.
With the Tar Heels up 3-2, junior Sebastian Guejman provided the clinching victory for North Carolina by taking down Dmitry Babenko in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 at No 5 singles. Guejman improved to 8-1 in dual match singles this year.
With the win, UNC now holds an 8-5 series lead since Sam Paul became the Tar Heels' head coach for the 1993-94 season. The victory gives Paul, a Lancaster, S.C. native and former assistant coach at South Carolina, the 198th victory of his career.
The Tar Heels return home Saturday, Feb. 18 when they take on No. 34 Virginia Commonwealth in a match at the Cone-Kenfield Center in Chapel Hill. The match will begin at 1 p.m.
No. 27 North Carolina 4, No. 12 South Carolina 2
Doubles (team winning majority of doubles matches earns one point)
No. 1 #1 Raian Luchici / Brad Pomeroy (UNC) d. Thomas Stoddard / Tom Eklund (USC) 8-3
No. 2 Lenny Gullan / David Stone (UNC) d. Jamie Cuellar / Geraldo Knorr (USC) 8-2
No. 3 Dmitry Babenko / Yevgeny Supeko led Derek Porter / Sebastian Guejman (UNC) 6-5, Did Not Finish
*Carolina wins doubles point
Order of finish: 1, 2
Singles
No. 1 #5 Raian Luchici (UNC) d. Tom Eklund (USC) 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 Brad Pomeroy (UNC) d. Yevgeny Supeko (USC) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
No. 3 Jamie Cuellar (USC) d. Derek Porter (UNC) 6-3, 7-5
No. 4 #82 Geraldo Knorr (USC) d. #93 Benjamin Carlotti (UNC) 2-6, 6-1, 7-5
No. 5 Sebastian Guejman (UNC) d. Dmitry Babenko (USC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 Will Plyler (UNC) led Adam Adler (USC) 6-2, 3-3, Did Not Finish
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2, 4, 5*
*Clinched match
Updated Team Records: UNC 10-0, USC 6-1
Players Mentioned
