With a spot in the ACC semifinals at stake, the fourth-seeded North Carolina men’s tennis team edged fifth-seeded Duke 4-3 on Friday in a marathon at Cary Tennis Park that lasted longer than four hours. The Tar Heels dropped the doubles point but battled back to tie the match at 3-3, setting up sophomore Jack Murray for his match-clinching victory on court four in a winner-take-all third set.

Carolina improves to 21-9 with the win, while the Blue Devils fall to 22-6.

Doubles play got off to a promising start for the Tar Heels, with Murray and fellow sophomore Ronnie Schneider notching an 8-5 victory over Duke’s pair of Raphael Hemmeler and Daniel McCall. However, the Blue Devils would take control on courts two and three to secure the point. At the No. 2 spot, senior Esben Hess-Olesen and sophomore Brayden Schnur rallied from down 6-3 to force a tiebreaker, but the duo ultimately fell to Duke’s Josh Levine and Jason Tahir 8-7. With the doubles point up for grabs, Carolina’s 39th-ranked pair of junior Brett Clark and freshman Robert Kelly dropped a rare match at the hands of TJ Pura and Bruno Semenzato, 8-6. The loss snapped Clark and Kelly’s nine-match win streak that dated back to Feb. 20 at Texas.

Singles competition did not disappoint for the UNC fans that ventured out to Cary Tennis Park. The Tar Heels were able to tally four wins – including three in three sets – to steal a win from its archrival.

The Tar Heels will be back in action on Saturday at 10 a.m. against top-seeded Virginia in the semifinals. The Cavaliers are 2-0 versus UNC this season.