No. 7 NC State women’s tennis won its way to a berth in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Seattle with a 4-0 victory over its ACC rival, Clemson. The win marks the fifth time in the last six years that NC State will compete in the ITA Indoors.
While the 4-0 scoreline initially reads as a quick, eventless win for the Wolfpack, the Tigers put up a fierce fight in singles. Clemson forced multiple three-set matches, tiebreaks and more, but ultimately NC State won the three singles matches it needed for its second win of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
“I thought some courts it was clinical,” said senior Amelia Rajecki. “On other courts, I think it was a battle, but you always have that. No match is going to be easy. No, I thought we did well today. Did the business. It’s nice to do that.”
After a doubles win and two quick singles victories, the Pack’s momentum hit a wall. In search of its fourth point of the day, Clemson did everything it could to deny its opponents. However, after falling 6-4 in her first set, senior Sophie Abrams battled back from a 4-5 deficit in her second, eventually forcing a tiebreaker.
With her back against the wall, Abrams gutted out a 7-3 win in her breaker and won her third and final set 6-3 to clinch the Pack’s victory.
Before Abrams’ clutch comeback, No. 50 freshman Anna Zyryanova and No. 3 Rajecki earned smooth, straight-set wins on courts three and one, respectively. Zyryanova took out her Tiger opponent 6-1, 6-1 while Rajecki won 6-0, 6-2 on court one as she continued her dominant play from the Pack’s previous win over Alabama.
Besides Zyryanova and Rajecki, NC State struggled to overcome the Tigers in singles, especially with No. 27 senior Abigail Rencheli caught in an intense battle on court two. The senior squeezed out a 7-5 win in her first set, lost her second 6-0 and played a third set that was going down to the wire until play was stopped.
Meanwhile, No. 116 freshman Maddy Zampardo found herself in a first-set tiebreaker and senior Gina Dittmann nearly clinched the match herself when Abrams finished off her three-setter on court four. For head coach Simon Earnshaw, there were still some gaps in the Pack’s play — even in a 4-0 win.
“The significance that we qualify for Indoors is great,” Earnshaw said. “But I wouldn’t say this is really a match you build off. I think we expected to win, and we did win. That’s kind of the way it is, I think. I’d like to have seen us play a little better in some spots.”
Before the competitive singles round, NC State opened the match with a smooth win from its reliable trio of doubles pairs. While Rencheli and freshman Gabriella Broadfoot held a narrow lead over their opponents on court three, the Pack’s other pairs earned comfortable wins on courts one and two.
The No. 9 pair of Abrams and Zyryanova won 6-1 on court one. To finish the point off, No. 7 Rajecki and Zampardo took court two in a 6-2 result.
NC State will now embark on a month-long, cross-country road trip before returning to the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on March 1. With trips to Tennessee, Seattle for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, Michigan and Oklahoma, the Wolfpack has a daunting February ahead of itself.
“Mentally, it’s very tough being on the road,” Rajecki said. “I think for our freshmen, that’s definitely going to be a challenge. For the seniors, we’ve seen this a lot. So I think just taking it one day at a time [is good] as well. You’ve got long weeks, a lot of travel. You just got to make sure that you stick to your goals and just make sure that you do the work.”
Contending with travel is one thing, but competing week-in, week-out against the nation’s top team is an entirely different challenge. Over the course of the next month, NC State is slated to play No. 17 Tennessee, No. 5 Michigan, No. 16 Oklahoma and the currently unknown, undoubtedly ranked competition it’ll face in Seattle at the ITA’s.
“[The team has] got to apply themselves better, and we definitely will need to do that in February,” Earnshaw said. “We have six, possibly seven really, really rugged matches coming up right now.”
The red-and-white’s jet-setting February will begin Saturday, Feb. 3 against the Volunteers. First serve is set for 1 p.m.
