University of North Carolina Athletics
CHAMPIONS!
February 19, 2016 | Men's Tennis
Jack Murray knew he'd won his match as soon as the backhand from Virginia's Mac Styslinger went just wide of the sideline. He didn't know he'd clinched the match for his team until a teammate came bounding toward him. “Ronnie (Schneider) was running toward me, and I thought he was just really happy that I won,” Murray said later. “And then I realized there was only one other match on. I was like, 'Wait, did we win? Is it over?' and he's running at me yelling, 'Yeah! We did it! We won! We won!'”
Monday's ITA National Men's Indoor Championship final pitted familiar foes, as the host Cavaliers took on third-seeded Carolina. Last year, these two teams faced off three times, and each match came to the same result. Virginia got the better of the Tar Heels in Chicago in a consolation round match in this very tournament. Later, the Cavaliers won 6-1 in regular season ACC Play, then swept the Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Virginia went on to capture the NCAA Men's Team Championship, and the Cavaliers' Ryan Shane took home the singles championship.
Five Tar Heels and four Cavaliers returned to the court from the last time these two teams faced off, in Durham. And when Carolina dropped the doubles point, they found themselves in another hole.
“After we lost the doubles point, Brayden (Schnur) talked to the team and said, 'Guys, how many chances do you have to play for a national championship? So forget about the doubles. Let's go play and let's go get it, and let's nobody give up,'” Tar Heel head coach Sam Paul said. “There's such great leadership within the core of the team, and things just started happening.”
Still, the Tar Heels dropped the four first sets in singles, it looked like Virginia might take home the title. Not so fast. “Guys just kept fighting and plugging and fighting and plugging, and then things just turned around for us,” Paul said. Virginia's J.C. Aragone won on court five to take the Cavaliers a step closer, but Anu Kodali gave the Tar Heels a point on court six. After dropping the first set 6-2, Schnur battled Shane to force a third set on court one. He won on the tiebreaker, 7-4.
Two-two. On court two, Carolina's Ronnie Schneider performed the same feat against 2015 NCAA semifinalist Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, winning a tiebreak to push the Tar Heels ahead.
Three-two. Carolina needed a win from either Brett Clark, who'd forced a third set after dropping the first, 6-1; or Murray, who took the first set from Mac Styslinger 6-4 before losing 6-0 in the second. At 5-5, Murray broke Styslinger to inch in front. He served for the match and won, 7-5. At the same time, Clark was a game away from clinching himself.
Monday's match was the culmination of an unbelievable stretch of tennis for the Tar Heels.
From January 30 through February 15, the team played –and won– six matches against top-16 opponents. On the third weekend in January, the Tar Heels won ITA Kickoff matches against Indiana and NC State to advance to the National Team Indoor Championships. The following weekend, they swept #7 Illinois, then edged #5 Oklahoma when Robert Kelly and then Clark keyed a come-from-behind win. All that was prelude to this past weekend, when the team defeated #14 Texas Tech, #6 Ohio State and #9 UCLA before taking on the #1 Cavaliers, all on four consecutive days.
“Every single week, we just keep getting better,” Paul said. “It's the first time we've played four matches back to back like that, and you're going 'Are we going to be a little bit fatigued?' and then they got their second wind today. They just keep battling and fighting, and it's just an honor to be with them and coach them.”
Monday afternoon, Murray was still coming down from the high experienced in clinching the match. He watched the last few points on video to help reality set in. “I was like, 'Whoa, who is that guy out there trying to clinch a national title?'' he said. And Murray is careful to place the win in context, knowing that he was just one part of a team championship. “Even though it was four individuals winning the match, the only way I can describe it is a team win,” he said. “We had different guys stepping up in singles and doubles. All the guys that weren't playing did a phenomenal job of cheering, and they really carried us through playing against another team's home crowd. They really were giving us a lot of confidence. Up and down the line, one through twelve, everyone did their part. This is a true team here, UNC tennis.”
The Tar Heels now bring home a national championship trophy but still face a challenging slate the rest of the way. Carolina will see Virginia again, maybe twice more, and other ACC teams such as Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame present challenges. So while Monday's win is a national championship, the work is not done. “This is not our ultimate goal,” Paul said. “Our ultimate goal is to be the best team in May from NCAA competition, so that's what we're shooting for. We're excited about this and we'll enjoy it for a couple days but we'll go back to work.”
They'll be back to work later this week, but with the winter weather that hit Chapel Hill also affecting Charlottesville, the Tar Heels kept off the roads and stayed overnight Monday. Still, with a national championship in hand, it was the best snow day ever.
Players Mentioned
