The NC State men’s tennis team defeated the Florida State Seminoles 4-1 Friday night at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.

The No. 23 Wolfpack (13-7, 4-2 ACC) kept up the pressure against the challenging No. 26 Seminoles (14-5, 4-2 ACC), as it managed to close out most of its tight sets with the upper hand.

“It was a good match from us and Florida State is always tough,” head coach Kyle Spencer said. “Last year at their place we didn’t have a very good match and I think it was a little bit of redemption today.”

The Wolfpack started the afternoon strong, taking the initial doubles point in the final doubles match. Seniors Igor and Ivan Saveljic clutched out their doubles match after battling back from being down 40-0 in the 12th game to secure the 7-5 win, and more importantly the first point for the Pack.

Also in doubles, senior Georgiy Malyshev and sophomore Tadas Babelis won their match, 6-4 after pulling away from a tied score of 4-4.

In singles, Malyshev turned his game around for the winning match. Starting off, Malyshev was down 1-0 after losing the first set 6-2 against the Seminoles’ junior Enzo Le Seguillon. Malyshev flipped the court on Seguillon, coming back in the second set, 6-2. Riding on his momentum, Malyshev put his match to bed in the third set with a 6-3 win to end the game in the Pack’s favor.

“The plan that I was playing in the first set, it was working, but I didn’t do the best job on the deuce points,” Malyshev said. “I just stayed more patient in the second and third set and it showed with a win for the Pack.”

Along with Malyshev’s victory, teammates sophomore Robert Turzak (6-2, 6-3) and freshman Yannai Barkai (7-5, 6-2) defeated their opponents in straight sets as the Wolfpack edged out Florida State for a big ACC win.

Junior Alexis Galarneau was the only one to lose his singles match against a ranked player, No. 84 redshirt senior Lucas Poullain, in two straight sets. Igor Saveljic and Babelis had their matches abandoned after Malyshev’s win.

NC State found itself in really tight battles multiple times during the match, but the Wolfpack kept finding ways to come out ahead.

“My mantra is always about practice,” Spencer said. “We do this stuff in practice and the matches, for the most part, play themselves. It’s a question of being ready to execute and then how resilient are you when it’s close and things aren’t going your way. When it’s close it isn’t going your way all the time, it’s very even. Just believing in what you’re doing. Today you saw a team that really believes in what they are doing.”

NC State’s next match is against rival UNC-Chapel Hill this Wednesday at 4 p.m.