Nobody puts Staeheli in a corner.
Senior Luca Staeheli showed No. 6 Stanford’s Max Basing exactly why when he was down a break at 5-4 in the third set of the most intense match of No. 10 NC State men’s tennis’ season.
Working his way back from the deficit, No. 107 Staeheli put on a heroic performance against No. 80 Basing in the third set of the most important singles match of the day. The Swiss native battled tooth-and-nail for each and every shot — with a loud crowd of Wolfpack faithful behind him, Staeheli broke Basing, putting the score back to 5-5.
“The thing that we know about Luca is, you can’t close him out,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “He’s not going down. You serve for the set, you serve for the match, he’s not gonna give you anything.”
Thirty minutes later, Staeheli overcame his opponent one final time, gutting out a 7-2 tiebreak win to defeat Basing and secure NC State’s (10-4, 2-0 ACC) third top-10 win of the season in an impressive, high-pressure win over Stanford (8-4, 0-2 ACC). Despite capturing a close doubles point, the Cardinal stormed back, grabbing momentum in the middle of the match before Staeheli and company gained control back in the final third of the bout.
The crowd, the pressure and the two titans of college tennis competing at their highest level possible made for an unforgettable match environment.
“We talk about perseverance, we talk about being a family, we talk about how these matches are about the environment and their unique occasions,” Spencer said. “And today was a unique occasion, and you saw it — the fight back from Stanford … and you just saw it kind of all over the place. This was a real college tennis match with really good players. But yeah, super excited for the boys to get over the line.”
NC State won the early doubles point in a close round that set the tone for the rest of the competition. The No. 22 pair of redshirt freshman Jules Leroux and Staeheli beat their opponents 6-4 on Court 1 to start the match. While junior Martin Borisiouk and redshirt freshman William Manning went down 6-5 against their opponents on Court 3, the No. 17 pair of seniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek swung in and clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win on Court 2.
“I think we started out very well with the doubles,” Staeheli said. “I think we have a good advantage there. And then I thought the momentum kind of switched to their side, and we just stayed in it and got better in the end.”
Down 1-0, Stanford responded with an easy win on Court 1 over NC State’s No. 24 Shick from No. 18 Samir Banerjee. The ranked battle resulted in a 6-0, 6-1 win for the Cardinal that tied the match at 1-1.
Stanford’s momentum carried throughout the early part of singles — Van Sambeek was faced with an early deficit in the first set of his match. However, after storming back, the NC State veteran eventually gutted out a 7-6 (8-6) tiebreak win for the set. Van Sambeek took the next set 6-4 and put NC State out in front 2-1.
Stanford punched back with its own tiebreak win in a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) victory over No. 25 Borisiouk on Court 3 to tie it at 2-2. From there, Leroux entered the match and helped NC State close down on its West Coast opponents with an impressive 6-0, 6-2 win on Court 5.
Up 3-2, it all came down to Staeheli and Manning. With Staeheli battling in his cinematic third set and Manning leading early in his first, Manning was the last line of defense against a potential Cardinal comeback win.
But needing just one win for the clinch, Staeheli delivered. While he was faced with high pressure in his match, he said he didn’t overthink his potential clinch and focused on fighting for each and every point.
“Just stay with it, fight for every point,” Staeheli said. “And I’m glad it worked out. There’s no secret recipe or anything. I’m just trying to stay in the present and fight for every point.”
With a group of rabid Wolfpack fans cheering him on and making Basing’s time in Raleigh tough, Staeheli clinched the match at 4-2, overcoming Stanford’s push in early singles and securing NC State’s second win of conference play.
NC State will continue its ACC slate of competition on Friday with another daunting match. This time, the Pack will travel to No. 5 Virginia to take on the Cavaliers.
First serve in Charlottesville, Virginia is scheduled for 3 p.m.
