Jan. 26, 2008

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Junior Keegan Mueller continued his dominating stretch with a major decision at 165 pounds to open the match, and senior Drew Forshey put North Carolina in front to stay with a pin at 125 in the Tar Heels' 22-12 win over Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum. UNC evened its Atlantic Coast Conference mark at 2-2 and improved to 6-4 overall with the victory. With the loss, the Hokies dropped to 4-5 and 0-2 in the league.

The match started at 165 with the 12th-ranked Mueller recording a 10-0 shutout of Matt Epperly for his fifth straight win by major decision or technical fall. He has outscored his last five opponents by a 64-2 margin to move his record to 20-3, 10-0 in duals and 4-0 in the ACC.

The Hokies then ran off three straight wins at 174, 184 and 197 to grab a 9-4 lead before 18th-ranked heavyweight Justin Dobies got Carolina back on the board with a 4-1 decision over David Marone for his eighth straight win and a 21-5 overall record. Like Mueller, Dobies is unbeaten in dual and ACC action.

With the Tar Heels trailing 9-7, Forshey's pin of Steve Armour at 4:13 put Carolina in front for good with a 13-9 lead. Decisions by sophomore Danny Lopes at 133 (2-0 over Nick Murray) and redshirt freshman Nick Stabile at 141 (3-0 over Chris Diaz) extended the Tar Heels' advantage to 19-9.

Forshey moved to 13-7 overall and 4-2 in dual action with his third pin of the year. Lopes is now 11-10 on the year, while Stabile is 18-4 and 8-2 in duals.

Virginia Tech cut the lead to 19-12 with a win at 149, but redshirt freshman Thomas Scotton scored an 8-2 decision over Andre Johnson at 157 for the final 10-point margin. Scotton's win was his second of the weekend and moved his record to 14-4 and 7-0 in duals.

The Tar Heels take to the road again next Saturday, Feb. 2 to take on Penn and Drexel in Philadelphia.

North Carolina 22, Virginia Tech 12
Wt.	Result	Score/Time
165	#12 Keegan Mueller (UNC) major dec. Matt Epperly (VT)	11-0
174	#20 Eric Decker dec. Kyle Kiss (UNC)	                3-1
184	Tommy Spellman (VT) dec. Nick Tenpenny (UNC)	        3-1 OT
197	Kevin O'Connor dec. Dennis Drury (UNC) 	                7-5
HWT	#18 Justin Dobies (UNC) dec. David Marone (VT)	        4-1
125	Drew Forshey (UNC) pins Steve Armour (VT)	        4:13
133	Danny Lopes (UNC) dec. Nick Murray (VT)	                2-0
141	Nick Stabile (UNC) dec. Chris Diaz (VT)	                3-0
149	Matt Rosen (VT) dec. Vincent Ramirez (UNC)	        8-6 OT
157	Thomas Scotton (UNC) dec. Andre Johnson (VT)	        8-2