Coming off an upset victory over Texas and a sweep of North Carolina A&T this past weekend, the No. 7 NC State men’s tennis team was swept 4-0 by the No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels in the Wolfpack’s first conference match of the season. This was the 10th consecutive victory for UNC over NC State in men’s tennis.
After losing three consecutive matches over two weeks ago in the ITA Men’s Indoor Championship in Madison, Wisconsin, the Wolfpack (10-4) bounced back this past weekend with a big 4-3 victory over No. 4 Texas, its first win against a top-10 team since 2016. The Pack followed that victory up with a 4-0 sweep of NC A&T and hoped to ride that momentum into today’s match.
The Tar Heels (12-1) came into the match ranked as the No. 2 team in the country and had only lost one match all season, which came at the hands of No. 1 ranked USC. UNC had already started its conference play with a 6-1 victory over Virginia Tech this past Sunday.
In doubles, sophomore Yannai Barkai and junior Tadas Babelis, the 18th ranked doubles duo in the country, fell 6-3 on Court 1 to William Blumberg and Brian Cernoch of UNC, the 13th ranked duo in the country. Then in a big upset, junior Robert Turzak and senior Alexis Galarneau, an unranked duo, took down Mac Kiger and Simon Soendergaard of UNC, the fourth ranked duo in the country, by a score of 6-4.
After Turzak sat out against Texas, Galarneau was glad to have his doubles partner back.
“I thought we prepared well heading into that match,” Galarneau said. “I was happy to get back with [Turzak]. We had good energy, and only good things can happen when we have that energy.”
With attention turned to Court 5 for the deciding doubles match, junior Collin Shick and sophomore Rafa Izquierdo Lucque fell 6-3 and the Tar Heels took the doubles point.
With the Pack heading into singles play down 1-0, it came into singles ready to play. Early on, all the matches were competitive or even had the Wolfpack in the lead. Slowly, the Tar Heels began to turn it on and start to take over matches. NC State went on to lose the first set in all six matches.
“We had a great start in singles,” Galarneau said. “…I think the next step for us is to keep believing in what we’re doing, keep trusting what we’re doing, and just get over that little hump of getting first sets, and I think we can carry that momentum.”
Babelis was the first player to drop his singles match (3-6, 1-6). Freshman Martins Rocens (4-6, 3-6) and Luque (2-6, 1-6)both lost their matches shortly after. After the third singles loss, the Tar Heels had clinched the loss and the match was called.
While it certainly wasn’t the result the Wolfpack was looking for, head coach Kyle Spencer still felt there were some good takeaways from this loss.
“We had a freshman at five and six and you know we turned the lights on in the singles and they were up in the first set and doing really good things,” Spencer said.
He also was impressed with Alexis Galarneau’s effort.
“I wouldn’t trade Alexis Galarneau for anybody out there,” Spencer said. “He’s playing very well right now.”
Spencer chalked up the loss to the team as a whole, not any individual effort.
“I think it’s just one of those nights where the collective of their team was better than the collective of our team,” Spencer said.
The Pack will continue ACC play this Saturday when it travels to Blacksburg, Virginia to take on Virginia Tech. Spencer didn’t sound too concerned about this tough loss carrying over to Saturday’s match.
“Any team you play on the road in the ACC is tough, but we’re battle-tested,” Spencer said. “We’ve played more road matches than home matches and I feel like we’ve got the right guys on the bus, so to speak.”
