University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia (ACC Semifinals)
Tar Heels Fall In ACC Tournament Semifinals
April 29, 2017 | Men's Tennis
ROME, Ga. – The third-seeded North Carolina men's tennis team saw its Atlantic Coast Conference Championship run come to an end Saturday with a 4-3 loss to second-seeded Virginia in a semifinals match at Rome Tennis Center.
UNC, ranked 12th nationally, falls to 24-4 on the season and will wait to learn its seeding in the NCAA Tournament bracket, which will be announced on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Virginia (27-1) will face top-seeded Wake Forest in the championship Sunday at 10 a.m.
In the semifinals match up, Virginia took an early advantage by claiming the doubles point. UNC's Jack Murray and Simon Soendergaard matched up against Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alexander Ritschard on Court 2. The duos had faced one other once before during regular season play, with Murray and Soendergaard coming away with a 6-4 win. This time, Kwiatkowski and Ritschard took the match in a 6-3 decision.
On Court 3, UNC senior Ronnie Schneider and sophomore Anu Kodali fell 6-2 to Colin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone to give Virginia the 1-0 lead. The Cavaliers' win halted play on Court 1, where Tar Heels William Blumberg and Robert Kelly, the nation's tenth-ranked duo, trailed 4-3 in a top-25 showdown with UVa's 16th-ranked Luca Corinteli and Carl Soderlund.
Singles play brought tight competition, with three first sets sent into tiebreakers and two matches extending into third sets.
Blumberg, ranked No. 28 nationally and playing at the No. 2 spot, recorded another impressive win over a ranked player, defeating No. 15 Kwiatkowski 7-5, 6-4. Blumberg trailed 5-4 late in the first set, but he stormed back to win the last three games of that set and carried the momentum to a straight-sets victory.
On Court 1, No. 21 Schneider gave the Tar Heels a 2-1 lead in a battle with No. 90 Ritschard. Schneider, who has faced three different Cavaliers at the top spot this dual season, took an 11-9 tiebreaker to win the first set. An early break in the second set put him up 2-0, and he coasted from there to take the second set 6-2.
UNC's lead was short-lived as minutes later the Cavaliers evened the score with a win on Court 6. Tar Heel sophomore Blaine Boyden dropped just his third match of the spring, falling to No. 95 Henrik Wiersholm in a 7-5, 6-3 decision.
Virginia regained the lead in a faceoff that pitted UNC's Murray against Aragone, ranked 117 nationally. Murray won the first set 6-4, but Aragone came back to win the second and third sets 6-2 and give UVa a 3-2 lead in the match.
On Court 3, UNC's Soendergaard faced Soderlund for the third time this season. After dropping the first two meetings in straight sets, the Tar Heel freshman turned the tables this time with a big win, his second over a ranked player this season. Soendergaard won a tight tiebreaker 8-6 to decide the first set, and he won three-straight games to take the second set 7-5. His victory tied the score at 3-3 and left the match to be decided on Court 4 in a three-set battle between No. 116 Kelly and No. 42 Altamirano.
Altamirano took the first set with a 7-2 score in a tiebreaker, but Kelly rebounded to win 6-4 in the second set. The two battled back and forth late in the third set, each holding serve, but it was Altamirano who eventually broke Kelly's serve to win the third set 6-4 and give the match to the Cavaliers.
It marked the fifth year in a row that the Cavaliers have knocked the Tar Heels out of the ACC Tournament. It is also the third time that UVa has defeated UNC this season, the Cavaliers winning 4-0 in the ITA National Team Indoors semifinal on Feb. 19 and 4-3 in Charlottesville on April 9.
April 29, 2017
Rome Tennis Center
Rome, Georgia
#3 Virginia 4, #12 North Carolina 3
Doubles Results
Order of match finish: (2, 3)
1. #10 Blumberg/Kelly (UNC) vs. #16 Corinteli/Soderlund (UVa) 3-4, unfinished
2. Kwiatkowski/Ritschard (UVa) def. Murray/Soendergaard 6-3
3. Altamirano/Aragone (UVa) def. Kodali/Schneider 6-2
Singles Results
Order of match finish: (2, 1, 6, 5, 3, 4)
1. #21 Ronnie Schneider (UNC) def. #90 Alexander Ritschard (UVa) 7-6 (11-9), 6-2
2. #28 William Blumberg (UNC) def. #15 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVa) 7-5, 6-4
3. Simon Soendergaard (UNC) def. #109 Carl Soderlund (UVa) 7-6 (8-6), 7-5
4. #46 Colin Altamirano (UVa) def. #106 Robert Kelly 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4
5. #117 J.C. Aragone (UVa) def. Jack Murray (UNC) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
6. #95 Henrik Wiersholm (UVa) def. Blaine Boyden (UNC) 7-5, 6-3
Records: UNC 24-4, UVa 27-1
Players Mentioned
