No. 21 NC State suffered defeat to No. 1 Virginia on Friday night, taking its first conference loss of the season against the nation’s top team.
NC State’s (14-2, 6-1 ACC) doubles teams raced out to quick leads and the Pack seemed in control early on, but a comeback by Virginia (15-2, 7-0 ACC) on Court 2 turned the tide and gave Virginia the momentum to nab the all-important doubles point. No. 21 senior Martin Borisiouk and redshirt sophomore Jules Leroux also took their first doubles loss of the season (4-6) on Court 1, having previously been 9-0 as a team, versus No. 11 Stiles Brockett and Dylan Dietrich.
“Felt like we had good control at two doubles and they flipped that match,” head coach Kyle Spencer said. “That was a catalyst for them to go and get the doubles points.”
After dropping the doubles point, NC State started the singles matches well by taking five of the first six sets. However, the early momentum wasn’t enough as Virginia was able to fight back and win on Courts 1, 3 and 4 to gain the necessary points for victory.
“Credit to Virginia, they rallied on a couple of courts,” Spencer said. “And you know in the end, we just didn’t close. We just didn’t get over the line.”
It was a difficult day for the top half of NC State’s roster as Courts 1 and 3 were both rematches of matchups the Wolfpack had taken advantage of last year but couldn’t this year.
“Two of the matchups were the same in Bo at [Court 1] and Jules at [Court 3] and last year we won both of those, and today, we lost both of those,” Spencer said. “So you know every match is a little different.”
On Court 3, Leroux lost to Virginia’s Jangjun Kim (6-4, 3-6, 1-6) in a closely contested match, eventually relinquishing his one set lead. On Court 1 senior Martin Borisiouk also lost (6-3, 3-6, 4-6) to Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich, which clinched the match for the Wahoos. After losing the first set, Dietrich raised his level of play and energy to push past Borisiouk and do his part to secure the win.
To secure the doubles point, Virginia’s Brockett and Dietrich pushed past NC State’s duo of Borisiouk and Leroux to win (6-4) and the combination of Mans Dahlberg and Kim took down the Wolfpack’s freshman Charlie Camus and sophomore William Manning (7-5).
Despite the loss, the Wolfpack faithful showed out for their team on Friday, as fans flooded the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Outdoor Tennis Stadium to watch their team take on a No. 1 ranked opponent.
“We talk about these matches as being sort of entertainment and an environment,” Spencer said. “I thought we handled that space well.”
The Pack will look to continue to bring that energy on Sunday, March 22 as they host the Virginia Tech Hokies (5-10, 2-5 ACC) at noon.
“Everybody in the ACC can play, and so we’ll be prepared, and we’ll be ready, and we’ll be excited,” Spencer said. “We’ll be ready to go.”
