Well, well, well time for the Deacs to face a very familiar foe: The University of kNown Chea... I mean North Carolina. While this is a very familiar foe, this is unfamiliar territory for Wake as they are competing in their very first Elite Eight, and boy should this one be nothing short of a classic. Why don’t we take a look at the opponent.:

A Look at the Tar Heels

The 9th seed in this tournament, the Tar Heels are just coming off a tough 4-1 win over California in the Sweet 16.

Over the year they enjoyed wins over Georgia(Indoors), California again(Indoors),and Georgia Tech. They have also played both Wake and UVA(2X) this year and lost 4-3 to both and 4-0 loss to UVA indoors. Needless to say, they’ve shown that they can hang with the big boys, but they have yet to get the true statement win over the favorites to win the tournament.

At the top of their lineup is Senior #22 Ronnie Schneider, who looks to move this very very deep team into the Elite 8 and finally get the signature win.

Singles Matchups

1. No. 5 Petros Chrysochos (Wake) vs. No. 22 Ronnie Schneider (UNC)
2. No. 45 Borna Gojo (Wake) vs. No. 16 William Blumberg (UNC)
3. No. 13 Skander Mansouri (Wake) vs. No. 116 Robert Kelly (UNC)
4. No. 84 Christian Seraphim (Wake) vs. Simon Soendergaard (UNC)
5. Dennis Uspensky (Wake) vs.Jack Murray (UNC)
6. Alan Gadjiev (Wake) vs. Blaine Boyden (UNC)

Doubles Matchups

1. No. 4 Seraphim/Mansouri (Wake) vs. No. 12 Blumberg/Kelly
2. Chrysochos/Uspenskey (Wake) vs. No. 82 Murray/Soendergaard
3. Gadjiev/Gojo (Wake) vs. Anu Kodali/Schneider

This is one of the tough matchups I saw for the Deacs back when the bracket was first released. They need to come out firing on all cylinders in order to get past this tough foe

The doubles point will be huge and I think Wake Forest takes it by wins at lines 1 and 3 like they did in the previous matchup this year.

When looking at singles, it’s very hard to pick just one. With all honestly, 2-4 are all toss ups to me but I have to go with Mansouri’s and Seraphim’s matchups with Kelly and Soendergaard respectively. Seraphim fell in 3 close sets last time and Mansouri is playing a new opponent. If the Deacs can win both, they’ll run away with it. If UNC does then this will be another barn burner.

Ill take wins by Petros at 1, Uspensky at 5 and Gadjiev at 6 for the Deacs to pull out a close 4-2 win

There appears to be a live stream and stats website, so check it out tonight if you are around!

Live Video and Stats

What do you think Wake’s chances are on this match and moving forward in the tournament?