“You would always choose to be in the lead rather than be coming from behind,” said head coach Simon Earnshaw.
A statement that seems so obvious showed its validity in No. 9 NC State women’s tennis’ 4-3 loss to No. 39 Miami, as the Pack shot itself in the foot early in singles play.
After claiming the doubles point — a freebie lately for the Pack considering it has its national championship duo on Court 1, No. 2 junior Gabriella Broadfoot and freshman Victoria Osuigwe — NC State (10-5) just seemed to come out sluggish in the singles, failing to execute in matchups that were favorable on paper. Miami (7-2) jumped out to a 3-1 lead, winning three-straight singles points before NC State began to claw back into the match. After a five hour battle, Miami delivered the winning blow on Court 1 to seal the contest.
“We didn’t finish it when we had the chance,” Earnshaw said. “The level was good at the end, but it’s one of those things, especially with the rain, we have to win all three of these to win. We shouldn’t get in that situation where the points we’re putting on the board are more than three hours after we started the match.”
In NC State’s second outdoor home match of the season, play was suspended and moved indoors due to rain with a brief delay. Three singles matches had already finished up on the outdoor courts, all going in the direction of the U.
No. 35 Broadfoot fell in a non-competitive match 6-2, 6-0 to Sofia Rocchetti. No. 29 Lavinia Tanasie fell in straight sets to Sebastianna Scilipoti 6-3, 7-5. No. 66 Senior Anna Zyryanova fell 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 to freshman Dominika Podhajecka, marking the Pack’s third loss from a ranked player to an unranked opponent.
When play moved inside 2.5 hours into singles competition, the Pack needed all three remaining matches.
Court 1 was still on its second set with intense, long rallies prolonging the match. No. 41 sophomore Mia Slama had a chance to close out against No. 94 Raquel Gonzalez after taking the first set 7-6 (8), with a match point in the second set. But Gonzalez fought it off, forcing a third set and ultimately pulled through to win 7-5 in Set 3, securing victory for the Hurricanes.
Court 6 went in the direction of the Pack as junior Jasmine Conway closed out the final set 6-1 on the indoor court, after initial sets of 6-3, 4-6. On Court 5, the No. 2 2025 recruit in Osuigwe also came through in a truly captivating match with Aely Arai, with no shortage of shot-making late.
“Both hers and [Zyryanova’s] were kind of similar where we lost a close first set, and then we kind of blew through the second set,” Earnshaw said. “It just was hard work, right? I mean, even Tori there, was very, very, very tight at the end. We lost in deuce points and then we won two deuce points, and even the last point was a deuce point, wasn’t it? So it was just hard. Hard to win.”
Still, the Pack could not overcome the deficit it made for itself after giving up too many free points early.
“You can see in Mia’s match at the end there, how hard it was to get a free point,” Earnshaw said. “They all are going to come back when it really matters. And we split the three setters, but the problem is, we lost two straight-setters and we lost one where we were becoming completely noncompetitive … They had two freshmen on the court. We had more experienced players. We’ve got to do better than that.”
The Pack will look to bounce back Wednesday, March 11, as it heads to Winston-Salem to take on No. 66 Wake Forest at noon.
