Media Guide - North Carolina

Lenny Gullan joined
fellow senior David
Stone at No. 1 doubles
in 2007.
Senior David Stone
finished 2007 with 60
career doubles victories.
Senior Will Plyler
recorded a 17-8 singles
mark in 2006-07.
Senior Benjamin Carlotti
was a 2007 All-
ACC selection.
2008 UNC Tennis Dual Match Season Outlook
Coming off back-to-back record-shattering
seasons, the University of North Carolina
men’s tennis team is well positioned
to make another sustained run at conference,
regional and national honors in
2008. The Tar Heels begin their challenging
dual-match season with five consecutive
matches at home beginning January
29 before hitting the road for matches at
Ohio State and at the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association Team Nationals in Seattle,
Wash. The Tar Heels will begin their ACC
season at home against Wake Forest on
March 18 after meeting the likes of Rice,
Ohio State, VCU and Auburn in the nonconference
part of the schedule.
Head coach Sam Paul’s 2007 team was
instrumental in winning its head mentor
ACC Coach of the Year accolades for the
fifth time in his career and Intercollegiate
Tennis Association Mideast Region Coach
of the Year honors for the fourth time since
the 1996 season. Coach Paul was also a
national coach of the year finalist for the
fourth time in the past 12 years.
Carolina finished 2007 campaign with a
scintillating 24-4 overall ledger and a sterling
9-2 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference
regular season. Carolina’s 11 overall
victories against ACC opponents last year
was a school record.
All this came after losing four seniors
from the singles starting lineup to graduation
following the 2006 campaign, including
first-team All-Americas Brad Pomeroy
and Raian Luchici. Carolina came back to
win 24 matches last season with a team
that included only one senior – Sebastian
Guejman – on the Tar Heels’ 15-man roster.
The Tar Heels won their first 20
matches of the season, reached the ACC
Tournament finals for the first time since
2002 and advanced to the second round
of the NCAA Tournament. Carolina also
earned its 15 NCAA Tournament bid in the
past 16 years. UNC has participated in
the NCAA Tournament every year since
1992 except for 1999.
Carolina returns 14 of 15 lettermen in
2008 and adds a pair of talented newcomers
to the roster. Returning singles
starters from 2007 are headed by senior
Benjamin Carlotti of Paris, France, an All-
Atlantic Coast Conference selection last
yea who played at the No. 1 singles spot.
Carlotti finished the season with 22 overall
singles wins, including eight over nationally-ranked
opponents.
Sophomores Chris Kearney of Irvine,
Calif. and Stefan Hardy of Santa Maria,
Calif. were both incredible starters as
freshmen while sharing the No. 2 and No.
3 starting positions. Hardy played at the
No. 2 spot 15 times and No. 3 spot 12
times and compiled a 22-7 overall ledger.
He won honors as the Intercollegiate Ten-
nis Association Mideast Region Rookie of
the Year.
Kearney was named the Atlantic Coast
Conference’s Freshman Player of the Year
for 2007 after the Californian finished with
an overall singles record of 24-9. Kearney
was 6-4 at No. 2 and 8-2 at No. 3 during
the dual match season.
Besides the big three at the top of the
Tar Heel lineup, three other Tar Heels with
significant returning starting experience in
singles include junior Taylor Fogleman of
New Orleans, La., senior Will Plyler of
Raleigh, N.C. and senior Karl Wishart of
Baden-Baden, Germany. Senior David
Stone of Greensboro, N.C. also figures in
the mix for a starting singles position as
does sophomore Clay Donato, a native of
Toronto, Ontario and a transfer from Texas
A&M University who started for the Aggies
in their singles lineup last year.
Fogleman led the Tar Heels in overall
singles victories last year with 26, of which
16 were in dual matches. Playing primarly
at No. 6 singles, Plyler, a two-year starter,
finished 17-8 overall. Wishart was 5-2 at
No. 6 singles last year while seeing his
first significant playing time in the Tar Heel
singles grouping.
Carolina is expected to utilize doubles
combinations that feature Taylor Fogleman
and Chris Kearney, Stefan Hardy and
Clay Donato and Lenny Gullan and David
Stone. Fogleman and Hardy were a brilliant
22-4 last year and went on to win the
ITA Mideast Region indoor doubles championship
this past October. The duo then
reached the semifinals of the national indoors
in November.
Stone and Gullan return for their third
season together as starters in doubles.
The tandem played at No. 1 doubles last
year and finished with a 20-16 overall
record. Hardy teamed with Sebastian
Guejman at No. 2 doubles last year with
that highly successful doubles team going
19-5 overall.
Doubles play was crucial for the Tar
Heels in 2007 as it went 24-0 in matches
in which they won the doubles point and
0-4 in matches in which they did not. UNC
won seven matches decided by 4-3 scores
and another four in which the final score
was 4-2.
North Carolina finished the season
ranked No. 10 in the ITA rankings, its highest
finish since going to the NCAA quarterfinals
under legendary coach Allen Morris
in 1992. UNC reached the No. 5 ranking
on both April 3 and April 10, 2007, marking
its highest-ever in-season ranking.
UNC begins the 2008 campaign at the
No. 10 spot in which it finished last year.
Senior Karl Wishart
entered this year
with a 31-12 career
singles mark.
Junior Taylor Fogleman
led Carolina with
26 singles win in
2006-07.
Chris Kearney won
ACC Rookie of the
Year in 2007, the first
Tar Heel since 1999.
Stefan Hardy was
21-6 in dual-match
singles last year.
2008 UNC MEN’S TENNIS • PAGE 3