Oct. 10, 2008

TULSA, Okla.--Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman defeated two top-15 doubles teams on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the 2008 D'Novo/ITA Men's All-American Championships.

The 16th-ranked duo of Donato and Fogleman beat the tournament's top seed and the top-ranked team in the nation, Miami's Carl Sundberg and Daniel Vallverdu, 8-6 in the first match the played on Friday. A few hours later, they dispatched USC's 11th-ranked pair of Robert Farah and Steven Johnson 8-5 to secure a trip to the semifinals.

Donato and Fogleman's run in the All-American Championships is the furthest a UNC team has advanced since Raian Luchici and Brad Pomeroy made the finals of the tournament in 2005.

"We had a game plan going in against those guys, and I feel like we executed it pretty well," said Donato of the win over Sundberg and Vallverdu. "We've got a little bit of a rivalry going with them, so it was good to get a win."

Donato and Fogleman's success in the tournament is surprising only because the two have never played together consistently until this fall, but somewhat expected as they were among the best doubles players on the team last season. Donato posted a 25-5 record for the 2007-08 season with an .833 win percentage that was tops among the Tar Heels' regular doubles players, and Fogleman earned All-America honors for his doubles play. Head Coach Sam Paul will most likely count on the pair to assume the top spot on the Tar Heels' doubles ladder when the regular season begins.

"We aren't really surprised at how well they've been playing since they played so well in doubles last year," said Coach Paul. "Being coached by [Assistant Coach] Tripp Phillips has helped them improve, though, as he was a world-class doubles player."

Up next for the duo is the 44th-ranked pair of Arnau Brugues and Phil Stevens, who should have a sizable fan base for the match as the two play for the tournament host, Tulsa.

"I'm sure they'll have some people out there, but we're just going to stick to our game plan no matter what is going on with the crowd," said Fogleman of Brugues and Stevens' potential following. "It shouldn't really affect us."

The match will be played at 12:00 p.m. CST on Saturday.