Carolina's Men's Tennis Highlights/Notes In 2005

• North Carolina will begin the quest for its 26th Atlantic Coast Conference men's tennis championship when the Tar Heels meet the NC State Wolfpack Thursday at 12 noon in the first round of the 2005 ACC Men's Tennis Championship. This year's tournament is being played at the Cary Tennis Center in Cary, N.C. The winner of Thursday's first-round match between No. 7 seed North Carolina and No. 10 seed NC State will play No. 2 seed Duke Friday at 3 p.m. in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. North Carolina heads into the tournament ranked No. 45 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association rankings which were released on Tuesday. NC State is ranked No. 50. The Tar Heels are 14-9 overall this season and they finished 4-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. NC State is 15-11 overall and 2-8 in the ACC. The winner meets a Duke team which is ranked No. 8 by the ITA. The Blue Devils are 17-4 overall and 8-2 in the ACC.

• Geoff Boyd (Atlanta, Ga.) and Jonathan Janda (Shelby, N.C.) serve as the senior co-captains of the 2005 North Carolina men's tennis team. Boyd was a 2004 All-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree and he was recently named the Athletic Director's Scholar-Athlete Award winner for the Tar Heel men's tennis team for the 2004-05 school year. A four-year starter for Coach Sam Paul's team, Boyd has moved into the Top 15 in career singles wins and into the Top 10 in career doubles wins. Boyd is 73-44 in career singles and 84-47 in career doubles heading into the ACC Championship. Boyd won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Mideast Region doubles championship playing with Brad Pomeroy in the fall of 2005 and advanced to the national tournament where the duo made it to the quarterfinals. Boyd and Pomeroy achieved a high rank of No. 9 in doubles this year on January 11, 2005. Janda was also a 2004 All-ACC selection. He heads into the ACC Championship with a career doubles mark of 49-22 so his next win in doubles will be his 50th. In singles, Janda has a career record of 11-6 in three-set matches, including a 6-1 mark as a senior. Janda's overall career mark in ACC doubles matches is 12-5.

• Junior Raian Luchici (Timisoara, Romania) was named Wednesday to the 2005 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Team. This is the second successive season that Luchici was named to the All-ACC team since transferring to Carolina after playing at the University of Georgia in his freshman year in 2002-03. North Carolina has had at least one player named to the All-ACC team in every year Sam Paul has served as an assistant coach (1990-93) and as the head coach (1994-05) at UNC. In fact, the last time Carolina failed to place a player on the All-ACC Team was 1988.

• Raian Luchici's junior year at Carolina was highlighted by his 50th career win in singles against Purdue on February 13. Luchici is currently ranked No. 70 in singles nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Luchici's singles record this year is 23-12. He ranks second on the team in singles victories in 2004-05 with 23.

• Senior Geoff Boyd (Atlanta, Ga.) achieved his 80th career doubles win when he teamed with junior Brad Pomeroy (Asheville, N.C.) to beat a tandem from Elon on February 27, 2005.

• Freshman Benjamin Carlotti (Paris, France) posted a team-best winning streak of 10 successive singles win during fall play in 2004. Carlotti • Junior Brad Pomeroy has done yeoman's work for the Tar Heels this season after moving from the No. 5 spot in the lineup in 2004-05 to the No. 2 spot this season. Pomeroy is 17-14 overall in singles and 10-9 at No. 2. He earned his 49th career singles victory in dramatic fashion against Miami on March 27 as he rallied from two match points down with No. 67 Tim Krebs of Miami serving at 6-4, 5-4 (40-15) to defeat Krebs in three sets and clinch UNC's 4-3 win over the Hurricanes. The match marked the seventh time in Pomeroy's career that he had rallied from a set down to win in singles. Pomeroy went on to earn his 50th career singles win with a 7-6. 7-6 victory over 95th-ranked Arvid Puranean of Virginia Tech in the Tar Heels' 5-2 victory over the Hokies on April 2.

• In addition to seeking their 26th ACC title this weekend, the Tar Heels are also hoping to nab the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that comes with the title. Carolina has been invited to the team championships of the NCAA Tournament for five straight years and 12 times in the last 13 years. The Tar Heels have been in the team tournament of the NCAA Championships in 10 of the 11 years since Sam Paul became the UNC head coach. The Tar Heels also went to the tournament as a team in 1992 and 1993 when Coach Paul was Allen Morris' assistant coach at Carolina. The only year in the recent span the Tar Heels did not make the tournament was 1999 when they were 11-14. Carolina also made the Team Tournament in both 1977 and 1978. Prior to 1977, the NCAA Tournament was a flighted championship with teams earning points as their players advanced to through the singles and doubles brackets. The Tar Heels are 8-14 in dual matches in the NCAA Team Tournament since 1977.
UNC in the NCAA Team Tournament (8-14)
1977--Lost to Southern California 5-4 in round of 16
1978--Lost to UCLA 7-2 in round of 16
1992--Defeated TCU 5-3 in round of 16; lost to UCLA 5-2 in quarterfinals
1993--Defeated Harvard 5-3 in first round; lost to Southern California 5-2 in round of 16
1994--Defeated Clemson 4-2 in regional first round, defeated South Carolina 4-2 in regional second round, lost to Georgia Tech 4-3 in regional final
1995--Lost to Clemson 4-3 in regional first round
1996--Defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 4-2 in regional first round, lost to Texas 4-2 in regional final
1997--Lost to Clemson 4-0 in regional first round
1998--Defeated Georgia Tech 4-1 in regional first round, lost to South Carolina 4-1 in regional final
2000--Defeated Ball State 4-1 in regional first round, lost to Tennessee 4-2 in regional final
2001--Lost to Arkansas 4-0 in regional first round
2002--Lost to Virginia Tech 4-2 in regional first round
2003--Lost to Oklahoma State 4-0 in regional first round
2004--Defeated South Carolina State 4-0 in regional first round, lost to Ohio State 4-3 in regional final

• Carolina has an all-time record of 25-17 since the ACC Tournament went from a flighted format to a team format in 1986. UNC is 1-0 in first round matches, 11-7 in quarterfinal matches, 8-3 in semifinals and 3-5 in championship matches. UNC was also 2-2 in consolation matches in 1986, 1988 and 1989. There was no tournament in 1987 and consolation bracket matches were eliminated following the 1989 tournament. Carolina is 6-0 against NC State in tournament play with the last meeting being a 4-0 Tar Heel victory in the quarterfinal round of the 2004 tournament. In ACC Tournament play, UNC is also 4-5 against Clemson, 2-6 against Duke, 1-1 against Florida State, 4-1 against Georgia Tech, 2-0 against Maryland, 3-4 against Virginia and 3-0 against Wake Forest.

• The University of North Carolina men's and Central Alabama Community College women's tennis teams were honored as the March 2005 recipients of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Sportsmanship Award. The ITA National Team Sportsmanship Award is a monthly award that goes to one men's and one women's team that has exemplified outstanding sportsmanship, character and ethical conduct in the true spirit of competition and college tennis. The winners are selected by the ITA Ethics and Infractions Committee from nominations received from all ITA member institutions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community Colleges). This monthly award began in 2003. North Carolina and Central Alabama were this season's first recipients of the National Team Sportsmanship Award. UNC is coached by Sam Paul and CACC is coached by Kathleen Thompson. Paul is in his 12th year as head coach for the Tar Heels; Thompson is in her fifth season as CACC head coach. In addition to the obvious reasons, sportsmanship and fair play are considered important in college tennis due to the fact that players make their own line calls during a match.

• North Carolina's Benjamin Carlotti was named Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Tennis Performer of the Week March 28 after leading the Tar Heels to pair of conference, road victories the previous week. In a match-up against NC State, Carlotti posted a 6-4, 6-4 straight set victory over the Wolfpack's Val Banada at the number five singles position. The win sparked the Tar Heels' to the 4-3 road win over No. 37 NC State. Against Miami the following Sunday, the freshman from Paris, France rallied from a set down against the Hurricanes' Vivek Subramanian to win 5-7, 6-4, 7-6. The win by Carlotti in the third set tiebreaker provided North Carolina with the decisive point for the 4-3 team victory.

• Junior Derek Porter (Coral Springs, Fla.) has had an outstanding junior year for the Tar Heels in singles play. He heads into the ACC Tournament with a singles mark of 19-11 overall and 14-8 in dual matches.

• A year ago, Sam Paul was named the 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year. That was the fourth time in his 11-year career that Paul has won the award. Prior to 2005, Sam Paul and Jay Lapidus of Duke were the only two coaches to win the award in the first decade of the New Millennium. Paul won in 2000, 2002 and 2004 and Lapidus in 2001 and 2003. Sam Paul ranks fourth in ACC history in career dual match wins in ACC play with 67 and he is second in UNC history in that category behind only Coach Don Skakle (1959-80).

• UNC won the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference title, marking Carolina's 25th title and the first crown since 1992. Both the men's and women's teams won ACC titles in 2002, the second double ACC title for Carolina and first since the 1977-78 school year. Carolina's 25 ACC men's titles rank first among league schools. Clemson and Duke are tied for second with 11 titles each.

• Carolina has played 15 of its first 23 dual matches this year against nationally-ranked teams.

• Sam Paul is now in his 16th season at North Carolina. He came to Chapel Hill as an assistant coach in the fall of 1989 and became head coach following the 1993 season. His career record as head coach is 186-104 including 67-32 in ACC regular season matches.

• In 13 of the past 15 years, Carolina's #1 singles player has earned All-America honors and/or participated in the singles phase of the NCAA Championships.

• Since 1990 when Sam Paul came to Carolina as assistant coach, UNC has a 119-46 record against opponents from the ACC including matches played in the regular season, ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament. During that time UNC is 15-9 against Clemson, 6-16 against Duke, 15-4 against Florida State, 17-6 against Georgia Tech, 17-1 against Maryland, 1-0 against Miami, 21-0 against NC State, 13-6 against Virginia, 1-0 against Virginia Tech and 13-4 against Wake Forest.

• UNC has achieved a national ranking in the Top 30 at some point in the season in 15 of the last 16 years. Carolina's highest ranking this year was 17th on October 13, 2004.

• The Tar Heels have won 25 ACC championships in school history which is more than any other league school. Clemson has won 11 titles, Duke 11, Maryland two, NC State two and Virginia one.

• The Tar Heels are 1371-340-8 in dual matches all-time and 288-75 in ACC regular season dual matches all-time.

• Carolina's all-time record against its ACC opponents since the Tar Heels started playing tennis in 1908 include 38-23 against Clemson, 83-28 against Duke, 22-7 against Florida State, 26-13 against Georgia Tech, 52-8 against Maryland, 7-18 against Miami, 78-5 against NC State, 71-16 against Virginia, 16-1 against Virginia Tech and 79-10 against Wake Forest.