Jan. 26, 2008
BLACKSBURG, Va. -
Junior Keegan Mueller continued his dominating stretch with a major decision at 165 pounds to open the match, and senior Drew Forshey put North Carolina in front to stay with a pin at 125 in the Tar Heels' 22-12 win over Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum. UNC evened its Atlantic Coast Conference mark at 2-2 and improved to 6-4 overall with the victory. With the loss, the Hokies dropped to 4-5 and 0-2 in the league.
The match started at 165 with the 12th-ranked Mueller recording a 10-0 shutout of Matt Epperly for his fifth straight win by major decision or technical fall. He has outscored his last five opponents by a 64-2 margin to move his record to 20-3, 10-0 in duals and 4-0 in the ACC.
The Hokies then ran off three straight wins at 174, 184 and 197 to grab a 9-4 lead before 18th-ranked heavyweight Justin Dobies got Carolina back on the board with a 4-1 decision over David Marone for his eighth straight win and a 21-5 overall record. Like Mueller, Dobies is unbeaten in dual and ACC action.
With the Tar Heels trailing 9-7, Forshey's pin of Steve Armour at 4:13 put Carolina in front for good with a 13-9 lead. Decisions by sophomore Danny Lopes at 133 (2-0 over Nick Murray) and redshirt freshman Nick Stabile at 141 (3-0 over Chris Diaz) extended the Tar Heels' advantage to 19-9.
Forshey moved to 13-7 overall and 4-2 in dual action with his third pin of the year. Lopes is now 11-10 on the year, while Stabile is 18-4 and 8-2 in duals.
Virginia Tech cut the lead to 19-12 with a win at 149, but redshirt freshman Thomas Scotton scored an 8-2 decision over Andre Johnson at 157 for the final 10-point margin. Scotton's win was his second of the weekend and moved his record to 14-4 and 7-0 in duals.
The Tar Heels take to the road again next Saturday, Feb. 2 to take on Penn and Drexel in Philadelphia.
North Carolina 22, Virginia Tech 12
Wt. Result Score/Time
165 #12 Keegan Mueller (UNC) major dec. Matt Epperly (VT) 11-0
174 #20 Eric Decker dec. Kyle Kiss (UNC) 3-1
184 Tommy Spellman (VT) dec. Nick Tenpenny (UNC) 3-1 OT
197 Kevin O'Connor dec. Dennis Drury (UNC) 7-5
HWT #18 Justin Dobies (UNC) dec. David Marone (VT) 4-1
125 Drew Forshey (UNC) pins Steve Armour (VT) 4:13
133 Danny Lopes (UNC) dec. Nick Murray (VT) 2-0
141 Nick Stabile (UNC) dec. Chris Diaz (VT) 3-0
149 Matt Rosen (VT) dec. Vincent Ramirez (UNC) 8-6 OT
157 Thomas Scotton (UNC) dec. Andre Johnson (VT) 8-2
