May 13, 2006

SKILLMAN, N.J. - North Carolina men's tennis senior Raian Luchici of Timisoara, Romania continued his award-winning final season as a Tar Heel when he was named Saturday as the winner of the Farnsworth/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mideast Region Player Of The Year.

Luchici, who was named All-ACC earlier this year, will lead the Tar Heels into the second round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday at 1 p.m. after UNC beat South Carolina State 4-0 in the first round Saturday.

Luchici is currently ranked No. 10 in the nation in singles and he joins with Brad Pomeroy to be the tandem No. 5 in doubles. Both players have already qualified for All-America status in 2006. Luchici will play in the NCAA individual championships later this month in both singles and doubles.

Luchici has a career singles record of 86-43 and a career doubles record of 77-48. He leads the Tar Heels in singles wins this season at 25-7 and he is 16-6 against nationally-ranked opponents this season. His doubles record this season is 27-10.