Jan. 31, 2010

Tar Heels Defeat #20 Hurricanes
North Carolina improved to 3-0 on Sunday morning with a 4-2 win over #20 Miami in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff.

The #28th-ranked Tar Heels came out firing against the Hurricanes. They captured the doubles point as the #1 and #2 doubles pairings won in quick succession, with the new pairing of Ryan Noble and Andrew Crone dominating at #2 doubles, 8-1. Brennan Boyajian and Jose Hernandez were up 4-3 in #3 doubles when the match was halted.

In singles, senior standout Clay Donato was looking to improve his national ranking of 36. He was able to dispatch #57 Carl Sundberg in #1 singles with ease, 6-2, 6-2.

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Maryland Completes Perfect Weekend
The Maryland men's tennis team completed a perfect weekend Sunday with a pair of non-conference shutouts.

The Terps (3-0) downed Villanova 7-0 in the morning before rolling past Howard by the same score in the evening.

Using the same singles and doubles lineups for both of Sunday's matches, the Terps met little resistance, dropping just one set on the day. 

Florida Blanks Georgia Tech, 7-0
Eleventh-ranked Florida won four singles matches in straight sets, including the No. 1 position where seventh-ranked Alexandre Lacroix downed fourth-ranked Guillermo Gomez, and the Gators blanked No. 39 Georgia Tech, 7-0, Sunday in the second round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend at Linder Stadium/Ring Tennis Complex.

The Gators (3-1) handed the Yellow Jackets (6-1) their first loss of the spring and advanced to the ITA National Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va., in two weeks. Tech's next match is next Sunday (1 p.m.) at Georgia.

Florida began quickly by winning the doubles point, getting 8-4 wins from Billy Federhofer and Bob Van Overbeek over Miguel Muguruza and Juan Spir at No. 3 and 10th-ranked Antoine Benneteau and Lacroix over Gomez and Ryan Smith.

No. 14 Kentucky Slips Past No. 16 Wake Forest, 4-3
The 14th-ranked Kentucky men's tennis team took a 4-3 win over No. 16 Wake Forest in the final round of the ITA Kickoff weekend in Lexington, Ky. on Sunday afternoon.

After dropping the doubles point, Wake Forest rallied back to take three singles wins to knot the match score. The contest outcome came down to No. 5 singles, where freshman Danny Kreyman was narrowly edged 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-2 by Alberto Gonzalez.

Tripper Carleton finished the weekend 2-0, ending Sunday's play with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over No. 39 Alex Musialek at No. 2 singles.

No. 25 Alabama Rallies Past Blue Devils
Despite winning the doubles point, the 18th-ranked Duke men's tennis team got off to a sluggish start in singles and could not overcome No. 25 Alabama on the road in the second round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend, falling 4-2 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Alabama took early 3-0 leads in two of the three doubles contests, but Duke battled back and would eventually win the doubles point with victories at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots. Eighth-ranked Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha dispatched of Michael Davis and Saketh Myneni, 8-4, in the top spot and then David Holland and Jared Pinsky gave Duke the point with an 8-4 win.

Michel and Carleton were the only two Blue Devils to win their first sets. Michel went on to close out his win at No. 6, giving Duke a 2-0 lead in the match with a 7-5, 6-4 win against Ian Chadwell. Carleton would not finish his match as Alabama went on to win four straight singles contests to advance to the National Team Indoors. 

No. 13 FSU Wins 4-2 Over No. 29 LSU
The No. 13 Seminoles came back strong on Saturday, a day after falling to No. 32 Wisconsin, by winning 4-2 over No. 29 LSU in the final match in Tallahassee for the ITA Kick-off Weekend. Senior Jean-Yves Aubone fought hard to clinch the victory for Florida State. During today's match, every Seminole on the court posted a win for the team in either singles or doubles.

In doubles play, No. 31 Vahid Mirzadeh (Wellington, Fla.) and Connor Smith (Tampa, Fla.) won their match easily 8-1 against the Tiger's Roger Anderson and Stefan Skupski. The freshmen duo of Andres Bucaro (Guatemala City, Guatemala) and Anderson Reed (Daphne, Ala.) won their third straight doubles match in a 8-5 win over Olivier Borsos and Mark Bowtell of LSU.

In singles play, No. 23 Clint Bowles (Tampa, Fla.) came off the courts first. The junior posted a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Cody Loup on court three.