April 4, 2010
Coral Gables, Fla. – Waylon Chin battled for the straight-sets singles win at the No. 5 position, as the No. 51 University of Miami men’s tennis team defeated No. 40 NC State, 5-2, on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
It marked the first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season for the Hurricanes (7-10, 1-6 ACC), who claimed five singles matches – including four in straight sets – to power past the Wolfpack (13-9, 1-6).
Christian Blöcker and David Simon got Miami off to a strong start with the 8-5 win at No. 1 in doubles play, however NC State earned the doubles point after winning both the No. 2 and No. 3 positions by the same score.
But the Hurricanes – who entered Sunday on a four-match skid – came out firing in the singles competition, winning the first set on five of six courts.
Miami went on to win three-straight singles matches – with victories by Keith Crowley, Ignacio Taboada and Christian Blöcker – to take the 3-1 advantage.
NC State cut into the lead as 70th-ranked Jaime Pulgar added a second point with the 7-6, 6-2 win at the No. 1 position. But that would be the end of the scoring for the Wolfpack, as Chin clinched the match with the 7-5, 7-6 win at No. 5.
David Simon added the fifth point for Miami, outlasting Dave Thomson, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 at No.4 for his team-leading 19th win of the season.
“I thought we had a tremendous start in singles play this afternoon,” said Miami head coach Mario Rincon. “The guys came out firing and really wanted to make a statement. We played a lot better today than we have been, and really got a complete effort from everybody. I’m proud of the guys today, and we’re going to try to keep this momentum going into the rest of our ACC schedule.”
The Hurricanes return to the road for a pair of ACC matches this week. They take on Maryland on Fri., April 9, at 3:30 p.m. and Boston College on Sun., April 11, at 11 a.m.
No. 51 Miami 5, No. 40 NC State 2
Singles
1. #70 Jaime Pulgar (ST) def. #110 Carl Sundberg (UM) 7-6, 6-2
2. Christian Blocker (UM) def. Dominic Hodgson (ST) 6-2, 7-5
3. Keith Crowley (UM) def. Rafael Paez (ST) 6-3, 6-1
4. David Simon (UM) def. Dave Thomson (ST) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
5. Waylon Chin (UM) def. Akash Gujarati (ST) 7-5, 7-6
6. Ignacio Taboada (UM) def. Fernando Banos (ST) 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish: (3, 6, 2, 1, 5*, 4)
Doubles
1. Christian Blocker/David Simon (UM) def. Rob Lowe/Dominic Hodgson (ST) 8-5
2. Jaime Pulgar/Dave Thomson (ST) def. #57 Keith Crowley/Hector Nieto (UM) 8-5
3. Frideric Prandecki/Akash Gujarati (ST) def. Carl Sundberg/Barnabas Carrega (UM) 8-5
Order of finish: (1, 2, 3*)