Wake Forest Athletics
Deacs Prepare for Tobacco Road Rivals Duke and UNC
3/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 17, 2011
The 34th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team will kick of its ACC season this weekend with a pair of matches against Tobacco Road foes. The Deacons will take on No. 10 Duke in Durham at 3 p.m. Friday, before returning home to face No. 22 North Carolina on Sunday at 1 pm. at Hanes Park.
Admission to Sunday's match against the Tar Heels is free, and complimentary pizza will be provided after the doubles point.
Directions: To get to Hanes Park from campus, turn left out of the University onto Reynolda Rd. Proceed for approximately 2 miles and then veer right onto West End Blvd. The tennis courts are located on your right. The parking lot can be accessed from Sunset Dr., shortly past the entrance to the YMCA.
Last Time Out
The Demon Deacons earned their first road win of the season last week, knocking off No. 33 Rice 5-2 in Houston on Friday. Wake won five singles matches, three of them in three sets, to come back and earn the win after dropping the doubles point.
The Deacs overcame two deficits in the match, falling behind 1-0 and then 2-1 before winning the final four matches on the court. Iain Atkinson put on the most dramatic performance of the day at No. 4 singles, overcoming a break in the third set and saving a match point in the final tiebreak before taking the next three points to defeat Sam Garforth-Bles 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6) for Wake's third point. Danny Kreyman earned the clinching win at the No. 3 spot, taking down Oscar Podlewski 7-6, 5-7, 6-3.
Deacons in the Rankings
Helped by their road win over then-No. 33 Rice last week, the Demon Deacons (6-4) jumped up to No. 34 in this week's ITA rankings. The Demon Deacons' individual rankings stayed roughly the same. Jonathan Wolff moved up a few spots to No. 70 on the singles charts, and Tripper Carleton came in at No. 88.
Strong in the Middle
While Wake Forest has struggled in doubles at times, the strong point in the lineup has been the team of Danny Kreyman and Jonathan Wolff at the No. 2 position. The duo lead the team with an 11-4 overall record this season, including 6-2 in dual match play. Kreyman and Wolff have posted impressive wins this season over teams from Wisconsin, LSU and Rice.
Wake Forest in ACC Openers
Friday's match against Duke will be the first ACC match for both teams. The Demon Deacons are 10-4 in ACC openers under head coach Jeff Zinn, and have won their first conference match in each of the past six seasons. Remarkably, Wake Forest has never before opened the ACC season against Duke.
Scouting the Blue Devils
After starting the season on a 9-2 tear, Duke is currently in the midst of a four-match losing skid, though it should be noted that all four losses have come to Top 25 teams and that they have all been close affairs.
Duke was ranked as high as No. 4 in the country earlier in the season after reaching the semifinals of the National Indoor Championships, and currently occupies the No. 10 spot in the ITA rankings.
The Blue Devils feature two of the top players in the country in No. 9 Reid Carleton and No. 11 Henrique Cunha, and also have a strong freshman in No. 94 Chris Mengel. The Devils' top doubles team of Carleton and Cunha is ranked No. 4 nationally. The duo were named the 2010 ITA National Doubles Team of the Year.
A House Divided
Friday's match against Duke will feature a family feud, as brothers Reid and Tripper Carleton will occupy opposite sides of the battlefield. Tripper is a sophomore at Wake Forest and Reid is a senior at Duke. The two squared off against each other for the first time at any level off tennis in the 2010 ACC Tournament, with Reid rebounding from a first-set shutout to defeat his brother 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles.
Scouting the Tar Heels
North Carolina rebounded from an early season slump to earn a road win over then-No. 3 Texas last week, vaulting the Tar Heels up to No. 22 in the ITA Rankings. No. 35 Jose Hernandez has led the Heels at the top of the singles lineup, while the team of No. 22 Hernandez and Brennan Boyajian has anchored the top doubles position. The Tar Heel lineup was recently bolstered by the addition of No. 103 Joey Burkhardt, who was forced to sit out the beginning of the dual match season for eligibility reasons.
Last Time vs. UNC - 2010 ACC Quarterfinals
The last time Wake Forest and North Carolina met, Steven Forman pulled off an improbable comeback to help the Demon Deacons sneak past the Tar Heels 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the 2010 ACC Tournament.
Forman trailed Clay Donato 5-0 in the third set at No. 1 singles, but clawed his way back to win the next seven games and the match, earning what proved to be a critical point.
With the score tied at 3-3 and only No. 5 singles left on the court, it was up to Danny Kreyman to win the match for the Deacs, and the freshman came through in dramatic fashion, sneaking by Cameron Ahari 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) to send Wake Forest to the ACC semifinals for the fourth consecutive season.
The win completed a 2010 season sweep of North Carolina, as the Deacons had also defeated the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill in the regular season.
What's Next...
The Demon Deacons will head south for two ACC road matches next weekend. Wake will face Clemson on March 25 and Georgia Tech on March 27. The Deacs' next home matches will come the following weekend as they take on Miami on April 1 at 3:30 p.m. and Florida State on April 3 at noon.
Twitter
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