Women’s Tennis
The No. 40 NC State women’s team found itself in Raleigh for the first weekend of spring break as it took on the Boston College Eagles in a noon matchup on March 4.
This was the third ACC match of the season for the Wolfpack (8-8, 1-2 ACC), who was looking to pick up their first conference win after losses against Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, ranked third and first in the country, respectively.
The match began with the Wolfpack taking doubles with no trouble. The No. 12 ranked duo of junior Claudia Wiktorin and sophomore Anna Rogers defeated Boston College’s (6-5, 0-4 ACC) Kylie Wilcox and Jackie Urbinati, 6-3, at the No. 1 position. Then the No. 2 pair went even smoother as junior Amanda Rebol and sophomore Adriana Reami shutout Dasha Possokhova and Elene Tsokilauri, 6-0.
Singles play was similar to doubles as the Wolfpack took five out of six matchups. Rogers defeated Asiya Dair 6-3, 7-5, while Reami struggled a bit in her matchup, losing the first set, 3-6, but then coming back to win the match with a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
At the No. 3 position Wiktorin defeated Natasha Irani 6-3, 7-5 while freshman Taylor Bridges and senior Tayla Stenta picked up wins in the fifth and sixth matchups. Bridges defeated Possokhova 6-3, 6-1 and Stenta won a tough one against Tsokilauri 6-4, 6-3. The only Wolfpack player to lose was junior Bianca Moldovan who suffered a 6-4, 6-2, defeat against Urbinati.
Overall the Wolfpack played a great match and finished with a 6-1 victory over the Eagles. It then followed this victory up by travelling to Lake Nona, Florida to face Oklahoma and South Dakota in a doubleheader on Friday.
The first match was against Oklahoma and did not go as NC State hoped. Coming in ranked No. 40, the Wolfpack suffered a close loss, 3-4.
The Pack started by sweeping all three doubles matchups as No. 13 Wiktorin and Rogers defeated Jasmine Asghar and Christana Brigante 6-2, Reami and Rebol earned a 6-4 win over Camila Romero and Simran Kaur Sethi, and Stenta and Moldovan picked up a 6-4 win over Lily Miyazaki and Malene Stripp.
Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, they could not muster more singles victories, as Moldovan and Bridges were the only ones to pick up wins.
The second match of the day was much easier for the Pack as it swept South Dakota, 7-0.
The difference between this match and Oklahoma was the singles play though, as the Wolfpack took all six matches. The closest came in the number one position where Rogers was taken into a tie-breaker against Jana Lazarevic, but managed to pull out and complete a 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 victory.
The Wolfpack finished spring break going 2-1 and pulled their overall record to .500. The next matchup involves NC State traveling back to Florida to take on No. 16 Florida State on Friday at 5 p.m.
Men’s Tennis
The No. 25 NC State men’s tennis team took on No. 22 Tennessee Friday at the Goodfriend Tennis Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, in its only game over spring break. This was a huge matchup for the Wolfpack as it was looking to show off its skill against top competition.
The match was a back-and-forth affair that came down to the last shot, and saw the Wolfpack (10-1) secure a 4-3 victory.
The Volunteers (12-4, 2-1 SEC) began the match by taking the doubles point in a close fashion, foreshadowing the rest of the match. The No. 73 Volunteers duo of Preston Touliatos and Luis Valero defeated junior NC State twins and No. 45-ranked Igor Saveljic and Ivan Saveljic handily on court one, 6-3.
The second matchup was close as junior Georgiy Malyshev and redshirt junior Michael Ogden faced Tennessee’s Timo Stodder and Adam Walton. The match went into a tiebreaker, which Stodder and Walton won by a score of 7-4 to swing the doubles point in favor of the Volunteers.
If the Wolfpack had pulled out a victory in this, then it would have most likely won the doubles point as freshman Tadas Babelis and sophomore Alexis Galarneau were up 4-0 in a tiebreaker before their game was stopped.
The singles matchup started badly for the Wolfpack as iy dropped the number one position quickly, Tennessee’s No. 20 Stodder defeated No. 22 Galarneau by a score of 6-3, 6-4. This gave the Volunteers an early 2-0 lead, but the Wolfpack pulled through by winning three of the next four to tie the game at three apiece.
This meant it all came down to Babelis, who faced off against Walton. Babelis won the first set 6-4, but Walton came back to take the second 7-5. The match was then decided in the third set where Babelis broke Walton’s serve to be put into place to serve for the match, where he held up and won 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
The Wolfpack has only lost one game this season and is looking to keep the momentum going as it opens the ACC season this Wednesday when it takes on UNC-Chapel Hill at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh.
Anna Rogers dives to return a volley at the NC State vs App state women’s tennis match in the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on Saturday. In the morning game the Wolfpack beat the Mountaineers with a final score of 6-1.
