Rice University
#10 North Carolina
Men's Tennis Upends No. 10 North Carolina
2/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 3, 2008
No. 41 Rice 4, No. 10 North Carolina 3 (Box Score - PDF) 
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Rice's top pair of Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Müller set the tone by overthrowing Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearney 7-2 in a tiebreaker to secure the doubles point and lead the No.41 Rice men's tennis team to a gritty 4-3 upset over No. 10 North Carolina Sunday afternoon at the Cone-Kenfield Indoor Tennis Center on the UNC campus.
Fogleman and Kearney entered the match ranked third nationally. It's only the seventh time in 41 matches over the last two seasons that the Tar Heel duo has been defeated.
Bruno Rosa and Tobias Scheil provided an 8-6 win over Tristan Heinrich and David Stone at the No. 3 position before UNC's Clay Zonato and Stefan Hardy tallied an 8-5 win over Chong Wang and Filip Zivojonic in the No. 2 spot.
"I am very proud of the team," said head coach Ron Smarr. "They successfully battled a legitimate Top Ten squad in a hostile environment. It was another tight match, but the key to winning was the doubles point."
North Carolina (4-1) grabbed a 2-1 advantage as Stone and Fogleman picked up straight set victories over Wong and Denis Polyakov in the No. 5 and No. 6 holes, respectively.
The Owls (2-1) fired back as Rosa, Müller and Knupfer proceeded to notch three consecutive victories in rapid succession to clinch the win.
Rosa continued his impressive hot streak and moved to 10-0 during the spring season with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Benjamin Carlottie at the top of the lineup.
Müller followed at No. 2 with a hard-fought 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Hardy. After dropping the first set 7-5, Knupfer stormed back for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win against Kearney at No. 3.
Zivojinovic lost at No. 4 in a super tiebreaker in the third set for the final margin of 4-3.
Rice has moved its home opener against Lamar to Wednesday due to expected rain in the Houston area on Tuesday. Doubles action is set for 2:30pm at Rice's Recreation Courts since the Rice women's team plays No. 25 Texas A&M during the same time.
Players Mentioned
