NCAA First/Second Round Previews: North Carolina & Illinois Regionals

North Carolina Regional
Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center - Chapel Hill, NC

[2] North Carolina Tar Heels (25-4) vs. [49-64] College of Charleston Cougars (19-6) - Saturday Noon ET - North Carolina got in as an at-large after falling to Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament while Charleston punched its ticket by defeating UNC Wilmington in the finals of the Colonial Conference Tournament. Charleston went 1-5 against ranked opponents with the one win coming over UNC Wilmington. Charleston went 0-2 against ACC opponents falling to Virginia Tech and Clemson by a combined score of 13-1. Charleston has two starters that began their collegiate careers elsewhere with Juan Estevarena transferring in from Mississippi State while Garrett Gordon transferred in from Georgia Tech. 

Doubles Records: North Carolina 22-7, College of Charleston 15-9

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: North Carolina 84, College of Charleston 75

More Conference Tournaments: South Florida Too Good For Tulsa, Charleston Beats UNCW, UT Arlington Rules The Sunbelt, & More

A good crowd of around 100 gathered in Memphis for the finals of the American Conference Championship where South Florida was looking to win the title for the third consecutive year. South Florida and Tulsa met just nine days prior with USF winning 7-0 though Tulsa sat its top singles player Or Ram-Harel so this one figured to be much closer.

The top seeded Bulls got off to a good start at No. 1 doubles while Tulsa went up an early break at No. 2.  USF's Vadym Kalyuzhnyy and Sasha Gozun broke on the no-ad point when Gozun cleaned it up the net to make it 4-2