North Carolina has a lot of tradition (been playing tennis since 1908) but prior to last season it had never made the NCAA quarterfinals in consecutive years. Sam Paul had to feel confident going into the 2015 season, due to having an experienced starting 6, but as the season rocked on the injury bug took turns biting his starters and some of his reserves. Throughout the course of the season Brayden Schnur (knee-7), Ronnie Schneider (shoulder-3), Esben Hess-Olesen (back-21), and Oystein Steiro (foot-11) would miss a combined 51 starts which meant Paul constantly had to shuffle both his singles and doubles lineups. Despite all the changes the Tar Heels still managed to win 24 matches including an upset of #4 Illinois in the Sweet Sixteen before losing a tough 4-1 match to TCU in the Elite 8.
Sam Paul is back for his 23rd season as head coach of the Tar Heels and with his top 5 singles starters returning (all ranked) he’s probably hoping for a little smoother ride this year. Esben Hess-Olesen and Oystein Steiro both graduated so Paul will have to replace those 16 dual-match singles wins and his top 2 choices to do so are both freshmen. Anu Kodali, who was a Top 15 Blue Chip, picked up his first career ranked win when he beat NC State’s #71 Simon Norenius at the Duke Bonk Invitational while Bo Boyden, a Top 25 5-star, posted a 4-4 singles record this fall. I’d say Kodali definitely has the inside track to the #6 spot with Boyden likely the first off the bench at #7.
Brayden Schnur (Jr) will be back at #1 singles for a 3rd year in a row after going 10-8 last year. Schnur didn’t play any college events this fall though he did beat Ruben Bemelmans (ATP #98) in the opening round of qualies at the Rogers Cup.
Ronnie Schneider (Jr) will be back at #2 singles for a 3rd year in a row after going 19-10 last year with 6 of those wins coming at #1 when Schnur was out. Ronnie didn’t play the busiest schedule this fall but he did beat a pair of top 35 opponents at the ITA All-Americans in route to a quarterfinal appearance.
Brett Clark (Sr) and Robert Kelly (Soph) both had outstanding falls with each going 11-3 in singles and 10-2 in doubles. The duo made the doubles final at both the ITA All-Americans and National Indoor Intercollegiates so I’d expect them to be ranked in the top 5 when the next doubles rankings come out next week. Clark made the singles final at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional while Kelly made the quarters and both won a singles flight at the Duke Bonk Invitational. Kelly had a team high 23 dual-match wins last season with most of them coming at #5 while Clark’s 20 dual-match wins were second on the team. I’d expect Clark to be back at #3 this season and it’s possible that Kelly could move up to #4 but he’ll probably start out at #5.
Jack Murray (Jr) had a fairly light fall with the junior from Beverly Hills, Michigan only playing in 2 events. Murray’s best result came at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional where he made it to the semifinals before falling to Wake’s Skander Mansouri. Murray had a strong sophomore year going 19-8 with his time split between #3 and #4 and I expect him to be back in the #4 spot to start out this year.
North Carolina went 25-10 in doubles last year and they’ve got a solid #1 team this year in Brett Clark and Robert Kelly. Ronnie Schneider and Jack Murray should be back together again this season and you have to figure that Brayden Schnur will probably team up with either Kodali or Boyden to fill the other spot.
Below are each players fall college records (singles/doubles) along with a list of accomplishments. The ranking listed in front of a player is the ITA preseason ranking. Connor Daly didn’t play any fall events.
#14 Ronnie Schneider (3-3/2-1) – beat #32 Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St) and #35 Shane Vinsant (Texas A&M) at the ITA All-Americans before falling to #20 Tom Fawcett (Stanford) in the quarterfinals, picked up an ATP point in singles at the Decatur USA F24 Futures by beating a top 300 player
#51 Brett Clark (11-3/10-2) – made it to the doubles final at the ITA All-Americans (w Kelly) before falling to Virginia’s Styslinger/Kwiatkowski in a 3rd set supertiebreak, made it to the doubles final at the National Indoor Intercollegiates (w Kelly) before falling to Texas Tech’s Dojas/Soares in a 3rd set supertiebreak, won the White doubles draw at the Duke Bonk Invitational (w Kelly), beat Gabriel Friedrich (S Carolina) and #72 Jon Ho (Wake) before falling to Skander Mansouri (Wake) in the singles finals at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional, won the White singles draw at the Duke Bonk Invitational, beat #18 Felipe Soares (Texas Tech) in the consolation draw at the ITA All-Americans
#89 Jack Murray (6-2/3-2) – made it to the semifinals at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional, made it to the final round of the doubles qualie draw at the All-Americans (w Schneider)
#105 Robert Kelly (11-3/10-2) – made it to the doubles final at the ITA All-Americans (w Clark) before falling to Virginia’s Styslinger/Kwiatkowski in a 3rd set supertiebreak, made it to the doubles final at the National Indoor Intercollegiates (w Clark) before falling to Texas Tech’s Dojas/Soares in a 3rd set supertiebreak, won the White doubles draw at the Duke Bonk Invitational (w Clark), won the Blue singles draw at the Duke Bonk Invitational, made it the quarterfinals at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional, qualifed for the main draw at the ITA All-Americans
Anudeep Kodali (5-3/4-2) – beat #71 Simon Norenius (NC State) in the semifinals of the Black Draw at the Duke Bonk Invitational before falling to #107 Marko Krickovic (Auburn) in the finals, made the doubles final at the Bonk (w Boyden)
Bo Boyden (4-4/4-2) – won his first round singles match at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional, won his first round pre-qualie match at the ITA All-Americans, made the doubles final at the Duke Bonk Invitational (w Kodali), finished fourth in the Black Draw at the Bonk
Stuart DePaolo (5-7/2-2) – made the Red Draw singles final at the NC State Wolfpack Invitational
Chad Hoskins (2-7, 2-2) – won a singles consolation match at the Duke Bonk Invitational and Wolfpack Fall Invitational
Andrew Gores (0-0/1-1) – won his first round doubles match at the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional (w Murray)
Projected Depth Chart:
1. Brayden Schnur
2. Ronnie Schneider
3. Brett Clark
4. Jack Murray
5. Robert Kelly
6. Anudeep Kodali
7. Blaine Boyden
8. Stuart DePaolo
9. Chad Hoskins
10. Andrew Gores
11. Connor Daly
**Arturo Schmidt (January Admit)
Players With A Current ATP Singles Ranking as of 12/28/15 – high in ( )
#669 – Brayden Schnur (456)
#1335 – Ronnie Schneider (1020)
Universal Tennis Rating as of 1/1/16:
14.22 – Brayden Schnur
14.07 – Ronnie Schneider
13.85 – Robert Kelly
13.79 – Brett Clark
13.68 – Jack Murray
13.33 – Arturo Schmidt
13.31 – Anudeep Kodali
13.18 – Blaine Boyden
12.35 – Stuart DePaolo
11.33 – Chad Hoskins
11.92 – Andrew Gores (30%)
9.96 – Connor Daly (0%)
Universal Tennis Rating as of 6/3/15
14.48 – Brayden Schnur
14.40 – Ronnie Schneider
13.94 – Jack Murray
13.80 – Brett Clark
13.72 – Robert Kelly
13.46 – Anudeep Kodali
13.23 – Blaine Boyden
12.54 – Stuart DePaolo
11.95 – Chad Hoskins (20%)
11.77 – Andrew Gores (30%)
**didn’t make note of Connor Daly’s UTR
Pre-College Ratings/Rankings:
Peak ITF Junior Ranking:
#26 – Brayden Schnur
#105 – Anudeep Kodali
#207 – Ronnie Schneider
#517 – Jack Murray
#574 – Arturo Schmidt
#1368 – Robert Kelly
TennisRecruiting.Net Star Rating/High Ranking (Americans Only)
Blue Chip #1 – Ronnie Schneider
Blue Chip #3 – Brett Clark
Blue Chip #12 – Jack Murray
Blue Chip #15 – Anudeep Kodali
5-star #8 – Robert Kelly
5-star #25 – Blaine Boyden
5-star #49 – Stuart DePaolo
4-star #100 – Chad Hoskins
4-star #132 – Andrew Gores
3-star #183 – Connor Daly
TRN Yearly Recruiting Rankings:
2015 – #11 (Kodali, Boyden, Schmidt)
2014 – NR – (Kelly)
2013 – #3 – (Schnur, Schneider, Murray, Skattum)
2012 – #10 (Clark, DePaolo, Hoskins, Daly)
NR = Not Ranked
North Carolina’s season came to an end in the NCAA quarterfinals when they lost a tough doubles point and then couldn’t get enough going in singles before going down 4-1 – my recap with video clips.
6. Esben Hess-Olesen (UNC 13.67) vs. Will Stein (TCU 13.51) 6-3, 5-6 unf
I think Wake will be a contender too but Wake has its toughest ACC matches (UVA/VT/UNC) on the road while UNC gets those teams at home.
I think "should" is a strong word for them finishing second in the ACC. I would personally put Wake ahead of them and say a team such as V-Tech or Duke is capable of beating them (although not favored).