The No. 67 ranked men’s tennis team picked up its first ACC win of the season against No. 38 Virginia Tech on Sunday at Pullen Park. The 5-2 victory marked the end of an eight game losing streak that has plagued the Wolfpack since they began ACC play at the beginning of March. The two seniors who were honored on the day, Rob Lowe and David Chermak, both picked up wins in the last doubles matches they will ever play for N.C. State. Lowe had a bittersweet reaction to seeing the end of his final home match for the Wolfpack.
”It’s sad,” Rowe said. “Four years at State goes quick. I never knew this day would come as soon as it did. I’m proud of the team, I’m proud of myself, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.”
The Wolfpack clinched all three wins in doubles competition on the day. Chermak and redshirt junior Julian Sullivan put the Pack on the right track by quickly finishing with an 8-3 victory in the No. 3 doubles spot. Junior Jaime Pulgar and sophomore David Thomson soon followed, defeating their Hokie opponents 8-4 at No. 2 to secure the doubles point. After battling through a hotly contested match, junior Dominic Hodgson and Lowe took the No. 1 doubles victory 8-7. Lowe was thrilled but not surprised to come away with a win against the No. 66 ranked doubles team in the nation.
“It feels good,” Lowe said. “Me and Dom [Hodgson] are quite capable at winning at number one as long as we play basic and as long as we make our shots. We’ve been doing that at practice. We came out today and didn’t really change anything and played the way that we know we can play and it paid off. It’s looks pretty special on paper to beat a ranked team but on the court, everyone is the same.”
After the doubles defeat, the Hokies immediately struck back at the No. 5 spot with a win in singles against Sullivan, ending his three consecutive singles match winning streak. Pulgar then followed with a swift victory over the No. 50 singles player in the nation, winning 6-1, 6-4. Pulgar was content to perform so well considering he is still recovering from a recent injury.
“I’m still not 100 percent,” Pulgar said. “This is the second week I’ve been back at practice and it gets better day by day.”
Hodgson put the Pack up to three points after winning 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 2 position. Thomson, after falling behind 5-1 in the first set, fought his way back to a two-set victory, defeating Virginia Tech’s Trpimir Kujundzic 7-6, 7-5. Kujundzic, realizing he had lost the match for his team, threw his tennis racket over the fence in a fit of anger. All the while, Ivan Sanchez Gomez fought his way to victory on the No. 3 court, winning two straight sets after losing the first 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. Coach Jon Choboy was at a loss for words when asked to choose who had performed the best on the day.
“I don’t know who gets the game ball,” Choboy said. “I wouldn’t have enough of them. It was definitely a team effort. It’s been a team effort when we’ve lost, too. We’ve had a number of guys not performing well at the same time. Today, we put it all together. We’re a good team; I don’t care what anyone says.”
