The No. 15 UNC men’s tennis team recovered from a shaky start Friday in its opening NCAA Tournament match, defeating Navy 4-1 to advance to the second round. The Tar Heels will face off with Arizona for a spot in the round of 16.

In a stunner, Carolina dropped the doubles point, with the team of Brian Cernoch and Mac Kiger falling 6-3 and Benjamin Sigouin and Peter Murphy dropping their set, 6-4.

Despite the setback, the Tar Heels then dominated the singles portion of the match, winning the opening set on all six courts to seize momentum. Sigouin and Kiger recovered from their doubles losses to each win handily in straight sets, giving Carolina the lead in the match, 2-1. Murphy wasn’t far behind in finishing off his Midshipman opponent in straight sets, moving UNC to within a point of the win.

Cernoch couldn’t win the second set in his singles match, but Logan Zapp quickly picked up the slack, breaking his opponent’s serve on the final point to take a 6-1, 6-4 win and advance the Tar Heels to Saturday.

The Tar Heels have advanced to the second round in eight straight NCAA Tournaments. Now 17-8 overall, Carolina will have less than a day’s rest before taking on Arizona on Saturday at 4 p.m. for a spot in the next round. The winner of that match will likely face No. 2 overall seed Florida. The Gators won the NCAA title last season.

 

Featured image via UNC Men’s Tennis on Twitter

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