The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
North Carolina
North Carolina defeats No. 3 Men's Tennis, 5-2
03.08.2011 | Men's Tennis
March 8, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas - No. 3 Texas (11-2) notched the doubles point and added a singles win from senior Kellen Damico, but North Carolina (5-4) tallied a 5-2 victory over the Longhorns Tuesday evening at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Texas opened the match by taking the doubles point for the 12th time in 13 matches. The match at first doubles pitted UT's fourth-ranked tandem of junior Jean Andersen and senior Ed Corrie against North Carolina's 14th-ranked duo of Brennan Boyajian and Jose Hernandez. The Texas pair broke UNC to assume a 3-1 lead and held serve to go up 4-1. UT broke UNC once more to assume a 7-3 lead and held on for the 8-3 win.
At second doubles, UNC's Joey Burkhardt and Stefan Hardy broke UT's Damico and David Holiner to assume a 5-4 lead. UNC broke once more for a 7-5 lead before closing out the match, 8-5. Texas' Vasko Mladenov and Daniel Whitehead broke UNC's Cameron Ahari and Zach Hunter to open up a 3-2 lead. UT pushed its lead to 6-3 before UNC broke and held to cut the Texas lead to 6-5. But, the Horns held serve for 7-5 and broke the Tar Heels' serve in the final game to preserve and 8-5 win and give Texas the doubles point.
Damico needed less than an hour to push the Texas lead to 2-0, as he posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Tar Heels' Boyajian at second singles. UNC's Burkhardt sliced the UT lead to 2-1 at fourth singles, where he dealt the Longhorns' Whitehead a 6-3, 6-4 defeat. The Tar Heels evened the match at two when Will Parker posted a 6-4, 6-4 win over UT's Holiner at fifth singles. Moments later, UNC assumed a 3-2 lead when the Tar Heels Hardy held on for a 6-3, 7-5 win over Texas' Mladenov at third singles.
At first singles, UT's Corrie trailed UNC's Hernandez by a 5-4 count in the first set before holding serve, breaking Hernandez and serving out the next game to take the set, 7-5. Hernandez maintained control throughout the second set and prolonged the match with a 6-2 second-set win. Hernandez assumed a 5-2 lead in the final set before Corrie held serve and broke Hernandez to pull within 5-4. Corrie saved one match point in the following game before Hernandez ultimately broke Corrie's serve to win the set, 6-4 and give North Carolina the decisive fourth point.
At sixth singles, UT's Sudanwa Sitaram took the first set off of Cameron Ahari, 7-5. Ahari rallied to take the second set in a tiebreaker before closing out the match with a win in the ensuing third set match tiebreak.
Texas resumes play on Friday when it visits No. 7 USC.
North Carolina 5, #3 Texas 2
Doubles - Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
1 #4 Andersen/Corrie (UT) def. #14 Boyajian/Hernandez (UNC) - 8-3
2 Burkhardt/Hardy (UNC) def. #23 Damico/Holiner (UT) - 8-5
3 Mladenov/Whitehead (UT) def. Ahari/Hunter (UNC) - 8-5
Singles - Order of Finish: 2, 4, 5, 3, 1, 6
1 Jose Hernandez (UNC) def. #29 Ed Corrie (UT) - 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
2 #88 Kellen Damico (UT) def. Brennan Boyajian (UNC) - 6-3, 6-4
3 #121 Stefan Hardy (UNC) def. #114 Vasko Mladenov (UT) - 6-3, 7-5
4 #87 Joey Burkhardt (UNC) def. Daniel Whitehead (UT) - 6-3, 6-4
5 Will Parker (UNC) def. David Holiner (UT) - 6-4, 6-4
6 Cameron Ahari (UNC) def. Sudanwa Sitaram (UT) - 5-7, 7-6 (3), 1-0 (10-6)
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
"North Carolina fought harder than we did. They deserved to win. That's disappointing because this team of ours has a lot of great competitors. But, tonight, I thought North Carolina just wanted it more than we did."
