The NC State women’s tennis team completed an up-and-down weekend of competition, splitting a doubleheader Saturday against Louisville and James Madison before losing out to No. 27 Georgia Tech Sunday.
The Wolfpack (6-5, 0-3 ACC) narrowly lost to the Cardinals (10-6, ) 4-3, in a series that came down to the final match’s final game of the final set, but recovered against James Madison (5-3) 5-2 in the second series of the day. Sunday proved a more difficult task, however, as the Pack simply couldn’t overcome the Yellow Jackets (4-4), dropping the contest 4-1.
“We’ve got to find a way to be resilient and get to the end.” head coach Simon Earnshaw said post-Louisville. “It wasn’t good that we weren’t able to consolidate the leads we had in the first sets and lose the momentum, there were far too many errors and we have to be more consistent.”
Against Louisville, the contest started off with the three doubles matches, with the tandem of seniors Nicole Martinez and Sophie Nelson dominating their match 8-3. However, the duo of sophomores Liza Fieldsend and Natalia Janowicz dropped their match, 3-8, leaving it up to senior Elisha Hande and junior Joanna Nalborska to win their match. The pair was able to fight its way up from a 3-5 deficit to win the match 8-5 to clinch the doubles point for the Pack.
“Getting the doubles point is always really important,” Martinez said. “It gives us energy going into the singles matches, and it is always important that we start off strong.”
After that, the singles matches took place. Hande’s match was the first to finish, as she suffered a devastating loss to Manuela Velasquez, 6-1, 6-2. Martinez finished next with different fortunes, finishing her match in a dominant fashion, 6-1, 6-4.
Fieldsend fought hard and kept her match close, but ultimately struggled to close out the game, dropping both sets 6-4. Nalborska barely edged out Jessie Paul 7-6 with a 7-4 tiebreaker in the first set, but was able to capitalize on her momentum to win the second set 6-2. Her victory gave NC State a 3-2 edge heading into the final two matches.
On one end, Janowicz faced off against Olivia Boesing. After winning the first set 6-3, Janowicz lost her momentum and dropped the other two sets 1-6 and 4-6. Her loss made it a 3-3 game, with the final game coming down to Nelson against Chloe Willetts.
Nelson started off strong, beating Willetts 6-3 in the first set. However, she slipped up in the second set, losing 3-6. In the third and final set, Nelson jumped out to a 4-1 lead and looked as if she was going to close out the game with a victory. But, with the odds stacked against her, Willetts clawed her way back and tied the match at 5-5.
“I was really nervous for Sophie,” Martinez said. “It is so tough for the last person playing, knowing that the last match came down to her, and we all have to be supporting her.”
Nelson was able to win the next game to take a 6-5 lead, but Willetts again countered to win the next game to force a tiebreaker. They fought it out to a 4-4 game in the tiebreaker, but Willetts ultimately got the final three points to win 7-4, and lead Louisville to a comeback victory over NC State.
“We got to the point where it looked like we were in control, and all of a sudden, we lost it,” Earnshaw said. “But you can’t say it all came down to the last point because we could’ve done better in other areas. Willetts probably played her best game of the match when she was down 6-5, which was important because it easily could’ve gone the other way.”
Later that night, the Pack faced James Madison on the back end of the double header. After a tough loss to Louisville, it was able to rally back and claim a 5-2 victory over the Dukes.
Sunday, NC State lost to Georgia Tech 4-1. It was abandoned early due to the Yellow Jackets clinching an early victory and time constraints faced by the team, per Pack Athletics.
