University of North Carolina Athletics
Blumberg Advances In Singles Play At NCAA Tournament
May 25, 2017 | Men's Tennis
One Tar Heel advanced and one fell Wednesday as play began in the men's singles bracket at the NCAA Tennis Championships at Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
UNC freshman William Blumberg advanced with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over JJ Wolf, a freshman from Ohio State. He plays again on Thursday at 11:30 a.m., facing California's Andre Goransson for the second time in a week. The two played on Thursday, when the Tar Heels opened team tournament play in Athens with a 4-1 win over the Golden Bears in the Sweet 16. Blumberg won the matchup in three sets, avenging one of just two singles losses this spring: Goransson won the matchup when the two faced off at ITA National Team Indoors in February. (For more on Wednesday's match, see below.)
Carolina senior Ronnie Schneider also faced a familiar foe Wednesday. He played Cal's Florian Lakat in the Sweet 16 win last Thursday and also National Team Indoors. Schneider won the match six days ago in Athens. In February, the two were tied at 6-6 in the third set when play was halted. But on Wednesday, it was Lakat who came out on top, beating the Tar Heel senior 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles play starts Thursday, with Blumberg and junior Robert Kelly set to play LSU's Justin Butsch and Jordan Daigle at 5:30 p.m.
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Alex Eidson, a journalism student at the University of Georgia who is helping to cover the NCAA Championships, wrote the following recap of Blumberg's match on Wednesday.
UNC's Blumberg defeats Ohio St. freshman JJ Wolf in first round
By Alex Eidson
ATHENS, Ga. – North Carolina's William Blumberg defeated Ohio State's JJ Wolf in the first round of NCAA singles tournament play by a score of 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Blumberg's individual victory comes the day after UNC lost 4-2 in the finals to Virginia.
The match, originally planned to start at 3:30 p.m., was pushed back more than 90 minutes due to the inclement weather in the Athens area that has interrupted many matches over the last two days.
Blumberg got off to a brilliant start by breaking Wolf early on and taking a 4-2 lead before the third rain delay of the day was called and the players were forced to wait once again.
Once the rain subsided and the courts were dried, the two freshmen took the court again at 7:30 p.m. to resume the first set. Without a missing a beat, Blumberg easily held serve following the delay, and went on to take the first set by a score of 6-3.
Blumberg dropped the second set but was able to raise his level of play in the third set.
When describing the back and forth nature of the match, Blumberg said, “I kind of plateaued and mentally I was a little shaky, but I found a little second wind of energy and refocused myself and played, I thought, a really good third set.”
In the final set, the players traded breaks in the first two games, but Blumberg settled down, held serve, then broke Wolf again to take an early lead. He was able to hold on and win the final set 6-3.
The pairing of Wolf and Blumberg in the first round is especially noteworthy due to the age of the two players. Not only are both freshmen, both were in the high school class of 2017 but decided to enroll in their respective schools in January so they could compete this season. Both played number two singles during dual matches and helped lead their universities to a final four appearance.
