Men's Tennis MEAC Media Relations

SC State Falls Short Against UNC Chapel Hill in NCAA Men?s Championships

The SC State men’s tennis team played an impressive First Round at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, but came up short against the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The match was played at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina.

The Bulldogs (18-4) began the day a little sluggish, losing the doubles point, 2-0. In the number two position, Clay Donato and Stefan Hardy (#54 ranked team in the nation) defeated Ivan Milivojevic and Tomas Dobrotka, 8-1. The number three doubles team of Tristan Heinrich and David Stone defeated Radek Pivonka and David Grund, 8-0.

Despite losing the match, 4-0, the match was a lot closer than the score depicts. Early in the match during doubles play, the Bulldogs were a little surprise by the pace, but eventually caught up to the 12th ranked Tar Heels (20-5) during the singles matches. SC State’s number three position player, Radek Pivonka, played an outstanding first set as he was just one point away from taking the first set off of the 91st ranked player Chris Kearney. The set ultimately went to Kearney, 7-6 in a 9-7 in the tiebreak.

The Bulldogs went down swinging as Stefan Hardy (ranked 73rd) defeated Dmitry Lomakin, 6-0, 6-4 in the number two position, Clay Donato defeated Gabriel Meana, 6-3, 6-4 in the number four position and Taylor Fogleman defeated David Grund, 6-1, 6-2 in the fifth position.

All in all head coach Hardeep Judge was pleased with the outing of his young men’s team. “I think the guys played a great match,” said coach Judge. “They started a little slow in the doubles but once they caught up with the pace of UNC they started to perform.” Judge continued, “We don’t see this type of pace until we get the NCAA and with six freshman, two sophomores and two juniors, I think we played extremely well. Despite being a young team, I believe that this is by far the most talented team we have had in a while.”