Struggles during the doubles point and clutch play by No. 43 Middle Tennessee State led to a difficult 4-3 loss for the No. 34 N.C. State men’s tennis team Tuesday at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
Sophomores Austin Powell and Beck Bond dropped the first doubles match for the Wolfpack, 8-2, and the No. 3 duo of sophomore Robbie Mudge and freshman Thomas Weigel fell right in behind, also losing 8-2, giving MTSU the doubles point victory.
The No. 41-ranked doubles team of senior Dave Thomson and junior Sean Weber played out their match and picked up the Pack’s only doubles win in tiebreak fashion, 8-7 (8-6).
Already one point in the hole, the Wolfpack rallied to take a 3-1 lead and seemed to be well on its way to victory.
On the fourth court, Weber worked quickly to take care of his opponent, 6-2, 6-4, to pull the match even.
Mudge had a bit more work to do than Weber, dropping his first set 2-6, but managed to put things together in his second and third sets, taking each easily by a 6-2 count to give the Pack its first lead.
“Rob is learning how to make the matches and the points last longer,” head coach Jon Choboy said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to work through points a little bit. And he’s doing that. I think he did it today.”
Weigel battled on court No. 3 for State. After picking up a 6-4 first set win, his second set went to a 26-point tiebreak. Weigel picked up a 14-12 win to give the Pack a seemingly comfortable 3-1 lead.
But the Blue Raiders were not ready to give in.
Powell, the Wolfpack’s only nationally ranked player, fought for the first set but was taken down in the tiebreaker, 7-4. His opponent, No. 98 Ben Davis, overpowered Powell in the second set and took the match victory, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, to pull Middle Tennessee State within a point.
Freshman Simon Norenius had another close match that fell through for the Pack. Like Powell, Norenius lost his first set in a tiebreak, 7-5. He continued to fight throughout the second set but was eventually taken down, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, tying the match, 3-3.
The last hope for NCSU was sophomore Beck Bond at court No. 6, who was undefeated on the season in singles prior to the match.
Bond dropped the first set, 2-6, and seemed to be well on his way to a quick defeat. However, he dominated the second set, taking it 6-1. In the end, MTSU’s David Fox had the better of Bond, taking the match 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, giving the Blue Raiders (7-3) the victory as the team stormed the court to celebrate with Fox.
“We’re not closing the door when we’ve got them down 3-1,” Choboy said. “Closing the door means playing our game. We played not to lose at that point in time.”
“They were tentative in that situation,” he continued. “Playing not to lose, so they lose. That’s going to happen nine out of 10 times.”
N.C. State (5-5) will return to the court be Saturday, Feb. 23 against UNCW at noon.
