CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- North Carolina earned a 4-1 win against South Carolina on Sunday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA championships at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. With the victory, the Tar Heels will move on to the NCAA Round of 16 and face Georgia in Athens, Georgia at 4 p.m. ET Friday. The Bulldogs are the host school for the final four rounds of the championships and go into Friday match as the tournament's No. 10 seed.
The Tar Heels improve to 26-5 on the season with the victory, breaking the all-time team single-season wins record of 25 victories achieved in both 1992 and 2006. North Carolina also advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 in both of those seasons. South Carolina fell to 16-14 on the season with the loss.
On court No. 2, Nelson Vick and Oystein Steiro edged the Gamecocks' pair of Andrew Adams and Kyle Koch 8-7 (7-4) to get the Tar Heels on the board. The Tar Heel duo of Ronnie Schneider and Jack Murray then rattled off four consecutive games on court No. 2 to force a tiebreaker after trailing 7-3. In the tiebreaker, the pair of freshmen fought off a match point before Schneider sent a winner down the alley that nicked the racket of a South Carolina player, giving the Tar Heels the doubles point 8-7 (9-7).
In singles action, sophomore Brett Clark tied UNC's single-season singles wins record with a 6-4, 6-3 victory on court No. 3. Clark's win ties him with former Tar Heel All-Americas Roland Thornqvist and Nick Monroe, both of whom achieved 36 wins in the 1992-93 and 2003-04 campaigns, respectively.
Brayden Schnur added a 6-4, 6-4 win against Andrew Adams on court No. 1, and Ronnie Schneider punched Carolina's ticket to Athens by outlasting Tsvetan Mihov 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on court No. 2.
South Carolina junior Kyle Koch tallied a 6-3, 6-2 win versus Jack Murray on court No. 5 for the Gamecocks' sole team point.
