In the ITA Carolinas Regional Championship, N.C. State collected 13 singles and four doubles victories  over the course of four days. Junior Jaime Pulgar and sophomore Dave Thomson led the squad, advancing to the round of 16 in singles competition.  Thomson would ultimately lose to No. 30 Jose Hernandez of North Carolina in the semifinals 6-1, 6-2 after posting a team-high five wins in the tournament.  While Pulgar has been the leader of the team and showing consistent success, Thomson emerged as a standout in Chapel Hill over the weekend.  “There are definitely key things [Thomson] has been working on and it is definitely showing,” head coach Jon Choboy said. Thomson credits his achievements to a newfound determination and commitment to train harder.  “Over my freshman season I learned some things that I needed to work on with my game,” Thomson said. “As I went along I recognized things that I needed to do better and things I needed to change.”   An attitude adjustment led Thomson to become a much harder working competitor in practice. He said he realized the importance of practice and makes a conscious decision to give 100% each time he sets foot on the court.   ”I kind of said to myself that my attitude in practice had to change,” Thomson said.  ”I decided I had to go out in practice and nail the things I wanted to do in the match because no one can just turn it on. I changed my attitude in practice from where when things get difficult instead of giving up, I persevere.” With this newfound perseverance, and better practice habits, Thomson  was pleased with his results.   ”It has been a little frustrating since the beginning of the semester because it kind of felt like I had taken a step back after identifying the problems in my game,” Thomson said. “But this weekend I was really happy with the way I played because I got to play better and see the work pay off.” However, attitude is only part of the equation. Fitness has been a heavy focus in the off-season, as well as the daily training regiment.  “One of the biggest improvements over the last eight weeks is fitness,” Choboy said. The team works on conditioning constantly and sees it as a key to better performance.  “All the hard work we are putting in as a team looks like its starting to pay off, everyone is looking a lot stronger and looking a lot fitter, we are understanding what it means to be in better shape,” said Thomson.  ”If you have the energy to make every ball, it makes you better and has a big mental effect on the opponent because he knows you aren’t going to give him any points.” While the weekend’s Invitational performance was an important tournament for qualification for indoor nationals, both players and coaches hope to build on the success and move forward.  “It’s a good step in the right direction but as coaches we pay more attention to things we need to work on,” Choboy said. “In that regard we should have had more players in the round of 16.”