Sorena Dadgar
Sophomore Ian Dempster returns a serve from his Virginia Tech opponent in doubles with Senior Robbie Mudge at J. W. Isenhour Tennis Center on March 22, 2015. The pair lost the doubles match from a 7-5 tiebreaker. The Wolfpack lost the meet 4-3 to the 16th-ranked Hokies at J. W. Isenhour Tennis Center on March 22, 2015.
The NC State men’s tennis team hosted the NC State Invitational this weekend, which brought 11 other teams from all over the East Coast to the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Complex.
The tournament consisted of three doubles draws and three singles draws, with NC State having four of its team members participate: junior Ian Dempster, sophomore Shoti Meparidze, freshman Michael Ogden and freshman Chris Mikrovas. Dempster and Ogden made up one doubles team while Mikrovas and Meparidze made up another.
Dempster and Ogden were partnered for the first time of the season playing in the doubles red draw. Although they started shaky, falling to teams from both Radford and Eastern Carolina University, they came back strong the second day, claiming an 8-6 win over sophomore Alec Miller and freshman Tristan Bautil from William and Mary.
“This was the first time I’ve ever played with Ian,” Ogden said. “I’ve never even played with him in practice. But we definitely got better with each match we played, so I feel like if we do end up playing more in the future, we’re going to keep getting better and play more cohesively.”
Meparidze and Mikrovas, who played in the white doubles draw, won their first match of the tournament 8-7 (2) against Tennessee Tech’s duo of sophomore Jorge Alfonzo and sophomore Carlos Tages, but fell during the second round against freshman Ian Melnik and sophomore Connor Thompson of UNC-Greensboro.
“Our first match we didn’t play as well as we could, but we still won,” Meparidze said. “We played OK the second day of the tournament too, but Chris is a really good partner, and I think we could play really good doubles in the future.”
Meparidze picked up two more wins in the singles draw to add to his record this season, making it nine wins out of the past 12 matches.
“I’ve got a lot of good wins this semester so the season’s going pretty good and these tournaments are showing that our hard work at practice is improving our results,” Meparidze said. “Hopefully we will play and finish better in the tournaments as the semester goes on.”
Mikrovas, who made his collegiate debut at the tournament, picked up two wins to start his record of the fall season. He grabbed a win with straight sets against Radford’s sophomore Jose Manzano and was given a walkover win from Chris Hoskins of UNC-G when Hoskins could not play because of an injury.
Players use the fall college season to gain more experience in the world of college tennis that may not be obtained as easily during the spring season. Filled only with tournaments, the fall has provided players like Ogden and Mikrovas the opportunity to see what it’s like to play at the college level and scope out their competition for the spring.
“Tournaments like these give you a sneak peek into the spring and how you can prepare,” Ogden said. “It’s good to see how these guys play, and even if you don’t play them you’re watching them, so if a teammate in the spring plays against someone you watched you can give some type of insight on their opponent.”
The Wolfpack will continue the fall season in Wilmington, taking on the UNC-Wilmington Invitational Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.