No. 23 NC State falls at No. 54 Cal 4-1 to open West Coast trip

Walker Magrinat, Correspondent • Apr 4, 2026

Senior Martin Borisiouk lunges for the ball during the match versus Clemson at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on Sunday, March 1, 2026. Borisiouk won his singles match 2-1 (6-7, 6-1, 6-3). NC State beat Clemson 4-3.

No. 23 NC State took an upset defeat against No. 54 Cal on Friday night, suffering its third conference loss of the season to open its West Coast trip.

NC State’s (16-4 8-3 ACC) top doubles teams seemed to feel the fatigue of a long travel day, as slow starts buried the Pack on Courts 1 and 2 to cede the doubles point to the Golden Bears (14-10 6-5 ACC). The Wolfpack couldn’t climb out of the hole with mediocre showings in the singles competition, with only freshman Charlie Camus claiming a point for NC State.

The Pack’s No. 11 ranked pairing of senior Martin Borisiouk and redshirt sophomore Jules Leroux didn’t provide much resistance as they fell 2-6 to Cal’s Alex Aney and Timofey Stepanov on Court 1. On Court 2, NC State’s duo of Camus and redshirt sophomore William Manning fell 3-6 to the Golden Bears’ Tiago Silva and Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski, who secured the doubles point for Cal.

Court 3 offered a closer match as the duo of freshman Ainius Sabaliauskas and redshirt freshman Cody Benton put up a fight, battling to 4-4 but they went ultimately unfinished after Cal’s victory on Court 2.

It was a difficult day for the top of NC State’s roster on the singles side as well, as the Pack suffered defeats on courts 1, 2 and 4 to cede the match to Cal. On Court 1, No. 21 Borisiouk played a close match but lost 4-6, 3-6 to Lechno-Wasiutynski. On Court 2, No. 124 Leroux showed grit after a 2-6 defeat in the first set but ultimately fell 2-6, 4-6 to Stepanov.

Court 4 saw an extremely competitive first set between NC State’s Sabaliauskas and Cal’s Bernardo Munk Mesa ultimately ending in a tiebreak 7-2 that went Mesa’s way. After the first set, a reeling Sabaliauskas couldn’t recover and ended up losing the match 6-7, 0-6. On Courts 3 and 5, both No. 99 Manning and freshman Darius Pop fought back from losing the first set and won their second sets to force tiebreaks for the Pack, but both matches would go unfinished after Cal wrapped up the victory.

NC State’s lone point in the match came from Camus as he picked up a 6-2, 6-1 singles victory over Lenn Luemkemann on Court 6.

The Wolfpack will look to turn the tide and get back on track in ACC play as it travels to No. 25 Stanford (13-7, 6-4 ACC) on Sunday, April 5.