The No. 16 NC State men’s tennis team fell to No. 5 UNC-Chapel Hill by a final score of 5-0 at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon in the Pack’s first conference match of the season.
The Tar Heels (12-3, 3-0 ACC) extended their winning streak over the Wolfpack (10-2, 0-1 ACC) to seven matches in a row going back to 2013.
“I thought it was a good tennis match,” head coach Kyle Spencer said. “I thought North Carolina played extremely well. Our guys were in there and we showed a lot of grit and patience in a lot of the second sets, getting back into those matches. It didn’t go our way today, but happy with the progress so far and excited for Friday.”
In the doubles, UNC’s Simon Soendergaard and Mac Kiger defeated freshman Tadas Babelis and sophomore Alexis Galarneau 6-1 while No. 6 William Blumberg and Robert Kelly beat No. 45 junior Ivan Saveljic and junior Igor Saveljic 6-2 to clinch the doubles point. The third match did not finish but the Wolfpack’s redshirt junior Michael Ogden and junior Georgiy Malyshev were tied with Josh Peck and Blaine Boyden 4-4.
UNC kept its momentum from doubles, winning three of the four first sets in singles play. The Pack players fought back in the second set, but were not able to win any of the matchups.
In the premier singles matchup of the day, No. 1 Will Blumberg faced No. 22 Alexis Galarneau. The match was a rematch from October when Blumberg defeated Galarneau in the ITA All-American Championships quarterfinals. Blumberg, the defending national runner-up, took the first set 6-1 and completed the win with a 6-4 victory in a much more competitive set. Galarneau fell to 6-4 on the season, and 4-3 against nationally ranked opponents.
“A couple adjustments from last time out,” Galarneau said. “Obviously he’s a really good player, so I was expecting high level from him and I didn’t quite execute as well as I thought I could but it was good experience and hopefully I can play him again.”
Malyshev (9-2) took on UNC’s Blaine Boyden. Boyden won the first match 6-2, but found himself down to Malyshev in the second set. Malyshev was not able to hold on to a 3-1 lead and Boyden won the second set 6-4 for the third point of the day for the heels.
No. 120 Robert Kelly clinched the win for UNC-Chapel Hill by defeating Igor Saveljic (7-5) 6-4, 7-5. Saveljic lost the set on a double fault.
Babelis (9-3) took on Simon Soendergaard. Babelis won the first set easily, 6-2. However, in the second set, Soendergaard bounced back and also took the second set 6-3. The final set was tied at 6 before entering a 7-point tiebreaker. The win-by-two tiebreaker was won by Soendergaard 11-9, for UNC’s fifth point.
“For sure a couple corrections from this match today,” Galarneau said. “and I think everyone is pretty excited against Duke and then at Virginia Tech. It just doesn’t stop so we can’t get down on this.”
The Wolfpack returns to action on Friday at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center at 4 p.m. to take on No. 17 Duke University.
“It’s another great opportunity,” Spencer said. “We play in the best league in the country and throughout the ACC season we are going to be faced with multiple tough tests, as I think we are a tough test for other teams as well. While today isn’t the end result that we want, there were a lot of good things and I definitely think we can play better on Friday. I’m excited and I think the guys are excited about the challenge ahead of us.”
