The No. 51 men’s tennis team dropped its final regular season match to No. 1 Virginia Saturday, extending its losing streak to seven games.
The Pack hasn’t won a match since its contest with Maryland March 22 in College Park, Md.
“I wasn’t too concerned about the [losing] streak,” senior Christian Welte said. “But I know our team just needs one match to turn our season around and this one would have been a great opportunity. We had a lot of close matches and we just came out a little bit short.”
With the loss, State drops to 9-14 (3-8 ACC). The top-ranked, undefeated Cavaliers moved to a perfect 26-0 (11-0 ACC).
No. 36 senior Jay Weinacker pulled out the lone win for the Wolfpack as well as marking his 104th career win. He beat No. 17 Dominic Inglot in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
“I played this guy last year and going into the match I knew we matched up pretty well,” Weinacker said. “I had to break his serve early and just kind of stayed on him in the second set.”
According to coach Jon Choboy, most matches were very close, despite the box score.
“Welte’s first set took an hour and a half,” Choboy said. “When Jay [Weinacker] had won his match and Jamie [Pulgar] just split– there was a lot of opportunities there. But Virginia has only lost one match in the past two years so we’re not too concerned with that.”
Virginia swept the doubles point despite Choboy making a strategic change to the lineup. Welte typically plays number one doubles with partner Jullian Sullivan, while Weinacker plays number two doubles with partner Jamie Pulgar.
Saturday, Choboy switched things up a bit, playing Welte and Weinacker at number one.
“It was something that we’ve been thinking about since we lost Freddy [Prandecki] earlier on,” Choboy said of Prandecki, who has been out of the line up since March 18 due to an injury to his hand. “We have been kind of strained in doubles, particularly when we were getting a little more production out of number three with Freddy. We just thought that switching up the combinations a bit with Weinacker and Welte would be good and get something out of them.”
At number one doubles No. 118 Welte and No. 36 Weinacker lost their doubles match in a tie-breaker 9-8(3).
According to Welte, this season has been difficult for the Pack but something it has gone through before.
“It’s kind of like our sophomore year where different guys are playing well on different days,” Welte said. “We just need one match where everyone comes together on the same day. So basically we have a match on Thursday, and if we can all come and play well on the same day, we can show the team that we’re a really solid team and a force to be reckoned with.”
Thursday’s match marks the first round of the ACC Championships held at the Cary Tennis Center.
“I’m a lot happier with the teamís overall performance top to bottom Saturday,” Choboy said. “If we can continue to work hard for the next couple of days then we can do some good things in the ACC tournament. We can beat anyone who’s in the tournament if everyone plays well on the same day. I think we did a little bit of that Saturday, and that’s a good sign headed into the tournament.”
