The match was played before 209 fans at the Dail Outdoor Tennis Stadium as Carolina improved to 14-2 on the season and won its league opener. The 25th-ranked Wolfpack is now 11-4 and 0-2 in the ACC. UNC’s win total for 2014 is already two more than it had last year when Carolina finished 12-13.
The match had multiple momentum swings but Carolina ended up pulling out the victory by recording four singles wins, including a pair of three-set triumphs off the rackets of Brayden Schnur and Oystein Steiro.
Carolina has now won a trio of recent matches against nationally-ranked teams after dropping the doubles point. Carolina beat TCU in that fashion last month and most recently downed seventh-ranked Texas in Chapel Hill last Monday 4-3
After freshmen Ronnie Schneider and Jack Murray clinched an 8-3 win at #3 doubles, the Wolfpack rallied to win at #1 and #2 doubles to take a 1-0 lead in the team score. Robbie Mudge and Ian Dempster prevailed 8-6 over Nelson Vick and Oystein Steiro at #1. The doubles point then came down to court 2 which needed a tiebreaker to decide the match. The 27th-ranked tandem of Nick Horton and Sean Weber defeated Brett Clark and Brayden Schnur 8-7 (7-3).
The Tar Heels put on their rally hats and got the four singles wins capped by Oystein Steiro’s come-from-behind victory at the #5 spot.
Brett Clark started the rally with a 6-4, 6-4 win over NCSU’s Thomas Wiegel at #3. Shortly thereafter, freshman Ronnie Schneider won at #2 singles over 98th-ranked Robbie Mudge 7-5, 6-3. The 32nd-ranked Schneider improved to 12-1 in dual matches this spring and 24-3 overall for the 2013-14 season.
NC State answered with a straight set win at #6 as Nick Horton downed Nelson Vick. But Carolina retook the lead at 3-2 with freshman Brayden Schnur winning over #41 Austin Powell 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Schnur, ranked 18th nationally, is 11-0 in dual matches this spring.
State tied the match at 3-3 when Sean Weber rebounded from dropping the first set to beat UNC’s Jack Murray 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 at #4 singles.
All eyes then turned to court 5 where Steiro, a UNC junior, had lost the first set to Simon Norenius 7-4. But the Norwegian native persevered to win the second set 6-4 and then handily won the third set 6-1, serving an ace on his first match point.
Coach Sam Paul’s Tar Heels will be back in action again Sunday at 1 p.m. when it plays host to 13th-ranked Wake Forest at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
– News release