North Carolina
Virginia Tech
UNC Scores Road Upset Against Virginia Tech
April 3, 2009 | Men's Tennis
April 3, 2009
BLACKSBURG, Va. - North Carolina fought to the finish for a huge road upset over a top-30 ACC opponent on Friday afternoon.
The Tar Heels rebounded from Tuesday's loss to Duke with a convincing 4-3 win against No. 26 Virginia Tech.
"This is a great road win," said head coach Sam Paul after the match. "I'm really proud of how the guys fought to bounce back from the Duke loss."
Carolina began the match by taking the doubles point and a 1-0 team lead. Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman led the charge with their 26th win as a pair in the 2008-09 season, and Andrew Crone and Alex Rafiee clinched the team point with an 8-6 victory over Virginia Tech's Patrick Daciek and Sebastien Jacques.
In singles, it was Donato again setting the pace for the Tar Heels. His 6-1, 6-2 victory at the No. 1 spot gave UNC a 2-0 lead. Virginia Tech then won the fifth, third and sixth singles spots to go up 3-2, just one point from clinching a team victory.
As Brennan Boyajian put the finishing touches on a three-set win to tie the match, Fogleman was broken in his third set to make the game score 4-4. After breaking back to take a 5-4 lead against Tech's Pedro Graber, the Tar Heels' senior captain served for both the individual and team matches. With the game at 30-30, Fogleman won the next two points to secure a 4-3 win for Carolina.
"Obviously, Clay [Donato] and Taylor [Fogleman] really stepped up," Paul said of his top two players' efforts in the win.
The 2008-09 Hokies squad is one of the highest ranked Virginia Tech teams that the Tar Heels have beaten since Tech joined the ACC in 2004.
Next on the schedule for Carolina is the second top-ranked team the Tar Heels have faced this year. UNC plays Virginia on Sunday, April 5 at 1:00 p.m. in Charlottesville, Va.
#39 UNC 4, #26 Virginia Tech 3
Records: UNC 14-6 (3-4), Virginia Tech 11-5 (4-3)
Doubles
1: Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman [#27] (UNC) d. Nicolas Delgado de Robles and Luka Somen (VT) 8-5
2: Andrew Crone and Alex Rafiee (UNC) d. Patrick Daciek and Sebastien Jacques (VT) 8-6
3: Brandon Corace and Pedro Graber (VT) d. Brennan Boyajian and Zach Hunter (UNC) 8-5
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
1: Clay Donato [#35] (UNC) d. Nicolas Delgado de Robles (VT) 6-1, 6-2
2: Taylor Fogleman [#53] (UNC) d. Pedro Graber (VT) 6-7, 6-4, 6-4
3: Luka Somen (VT) d. Andrew Crone (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
4: Brennan Boyajian (UNC) d. Sebastien Jacques (VT) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
5: Brandon Corace (VT) d. Luke Mojica (UNC) 6-1, 6-4
6: Patrick Daciek (VT) d. Zach Hunter (UNC) 6-2, 0-6, 7-6
Order of finish: 1, 5, 3, 6, 4, 2
Players Mentioned
