North Carolina
Wake Forest
Carolina Topples Wake 6-1
March 16, 2012 | Men's Tennis
March 16, 2012
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The 32nd ranked North Carolina men's tennis team won their ACC home opener with a 6-1 victory over No. 74 Wake Forest at the outdoor courts of Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Friday afternoon. Jose Hernandez, Brennan Boyajian, Esben Hess-Olesen, Joey Burkhardt, William Parker, and Oystein Steiro were all singles winners for Carolina. The victory pushed the Tar Heels' record to 5-4 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.
Wake Forest (9-7, 0-1 ACC) used two quick victories to lock up the doubles point. The Deacons' tandem of Danny Kreyman and Adam Lee secured an 8-5 victory over Tar Heels Cameron Ahari and Hess-Olesen to open the match on court three. Wake Forest's David Hopkins and Amogh Prabhakar followed suit, knocking off the Tar Heel duo of Boyajian and Steiro (8-4) at the #1 spot to lock up the doubles point.
With the point already decided, Carolina's Joey Burkhardt and Jose Hernandez managed to avoid a doubles sweep by storming back to take a 9-7 win on court two over Conner Sherwood and Sam Wells.
"We're disappointed with our play in doubles. We didn't play well up and down the line, but we'll talk about it and get better," said UNC head coach Sam Paul. "We came out a little bit tentative, but I'm proud of my team with the way they bounced back in singles."
And bounce back in singles they did. The Tar Heels wasted no time in responding to the Deacons' short-lived lead. Steiro evened the score at one apiece with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Wake's Alex Tsai on court six. William Parker then put the Heels on top with his own win by a 6-3, 6-1 count on court five.
On court one, Hernandez was leading 6-3, 4-2, when his opponent David Hopkins was forced to retire, pushing the Carolina lead to 3-1.
That left the Heels needing just one more victory to secure the match, and senior Brennan Boyajian delivered. He worked his way to a 6-4, 6-1 win on court two.
"Give Wake Forest credit," said Paul. "Their coach is doing a very good job and they're a competitive squad. We knew they were going to give us everything they had."
With the match in hard, Carolina worked towards a clean sweep of the singles events. Hess-Olesen contributed by winning his third set super tiebreaker 10-6 after splitting the opening sets 7-5 and 3-6 with Wake Forest's Prabhakar. Burkhardt then finished the sweep with his own 6-4, 7-5 win over Adam Lee on court four.
The Tar Heels are next in action on Sunday, March 18th, hosting the No. 28 N.C. State Wolfpack at 1 p.m at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. Admission is free to the public.
No. 32 North Carolina 6, No. 74 Wake Forest 1
Doubles 1. David Hopkins/Amogh Prabhakar (WF) def. #44 Brennan Boyajian/Oystein Steiro (UNC), 8-4 2. #73 Joey Burkhardt/Jose Hernandez (UNC) def. Conner Sherwood/Sam Wells (WF), 9-7 3. Danny Kreyman/Adam Lee (WF) def. Cameron Ahari/Esben Hess-Olesen (UNC), 8-5 Order of finish: 3, 1, 2Singles
1. #34 Jose Hernandez (UNC) def. David Hopkins (WF), 6-3, 4-3 ret. 2. #90 Brennan Boyajian (UNC) def. Danny Kreyman (WF), 6-4, 6-1 3. #98 Esben Hess-Olesen (UNC) def. Amogh Prabhakar (WF), 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (6) 4. Joey Burkhardt (UNC) def. Adam Lee (WF), 6-4, 7-5 5. William Parker (UNC) def. Conner Sherwood (WF), 6-3, 6-1 6. Oystein Steiro (UNC) def. Alex Tsai (WF), 6-4, 6-1 Order of finish: 6, 5, 1*, 2, 3, 4Records: UNC 5-4, ACC 2-0; Wake Forest 9-7, ACC 0-1
Players Mentioned
