Easter weekend was a prosperous one for No. 10 NC State women’s tennis as it won its sixth, seventh and eighth matches in-a-row.
The Pack (18-5, 9-1 ACC) eliminated Louisville (9-10, 1-8 ACC), Notre Dame (15-8, 5-7 ACC) and ECU (4-9) all in robotic fashion, but emotions were still high as senior Anna Zyryanova played her final home matches on Senior Day. Zyryanova is the lone senior on the roster, and the last remaining player from NC State’s run to the NCAA Championship in 2023.
“One of the hard things these days is four-year players, right?,” head coach Simon Earnshaw said. ”It’s become so endemic in our sport, with short-termism and all this multiple transfers, dropping and changing … We didn’t have any seniors last year. It was a little bit unusual like that … It’s not even for the individual, but it helps everybody around them stay a little more orderly, rather than just randomizing it every single year, and ‘let’s see what we get.’”
Playing in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots last season, Zyryanova has the experience and the skill to put the team in position to win.
“We know what we’re gonna get with her, we know she can bring a level of experience and knowledge within our program,” Earnshaw said. “She’s had some disruptions with injuries in her time here, but overall, there’s been a sort of a steady progression and continuity, where particularly at this time of the year, she knows how it is and what to do. I think that’s very helpful when you’ve got a lot of young players or people looking for a bit of direction.”
NC State 7, Louisville 0
The weekend started with a domination on Friday as the Pack put away the Cardinals on every court, not dropping a single set. It started with two 6-0 victories in the doubles as the Pack’s pairings of No. 2 junior Gabriella Broadfoot and freshman Victoria Osuigwe plus No. 73 junior Jasmine Conway and Zyryanova both delivered bagels.
Playing out all the singles matches rather than finishing at the clinch, the Pack did not falter once. No. 36 sophomore Mia Slama went 6-1, 6-1, utilizing her ever-consistent approach en route to domination. She has been rock solid, having lost only once since mid-February while playing most of the season on Court 1.
“She’s very professional, very disciplined, because she does a lot of the things very well when you’re not looking,” Earnshaw said. “She’s on top of her school work, very organized, and that brings an amount of regularity to her. She never gets too high, never gets too low.”
Courts 2 and 3 were a little more competitive with No. 42 Broadfoot and No. 51 Zyryanova winning in straight-sets that were highly contested. But it was a breeze for the rest of the squad as No. 65 freshman Lavinia Tanasie won 6-2, 6-2, while Conway won 6-3, 6-3.
A bright spot was sophomore spring transfer Amelie Smejkalova, playing in her fourth match with the Pack. She was granted eligibility by the NCAA 17 matches into the season, and started her Wolfpack career with two losses. But versus Louisville, she strung together a second consecutive win, winning 6-3, 6-4 versus the Cardinals’ Lucia Gallegos on Court 6.
NC State 4, Notre Dame 0
The Easter eggs were out for the Pack’s noon match versus Notre Dame on Easter Sunday, but so were the April showers as the rain began to fall 15 minutes into doubles play.
When the match was moved inside, the Pack sprung ahead to win the doubles point as it took Courts 1 and 3. Broadfoot and Osuigwe picked up a ranked win, 6-2, versus No. 34 Bianca Molnar and Bojana Pozder, and Slama with Tanasie won their set 6-4.
It wasn’t as straightforward for NC State in the singles, but Zyryanova was the one to get it done and clinch the win for the Pack. In both of her singles sets in her final ACC home match, she came from behind, but won 6-4, 6-3.
On Courts 2 and 4, Broadfoot and Tanasie won fairly handily, with Broadfoot only dropping four total games and Tanasie dropping six.
NC State 7, ECU 0
Completing the weekend sweep, NC State dominated ECU to close the Easter double-header in a match that Earnshaw said was a necessity.
“We need to play ECU,” Earnshaw said. “We’re playing them in most sports, they don’t have a conference schedule. They need matches later in the year, and for us, it’s useful to get matches for our other players. In today’s scenario, we had two players not even really play, so there’s a level of utility. Why is it on Easter? I don’t know, we make the schedules in advance. We should really have been playing first Thursday, Saturday this week.”
Earnshaw said the conference schedules the matches, and for a change to take place, all four coaches in the weekend cohort would have to agree to it. So Louisville and Notre Dame as a pair of travel buddies, and Wake Forest as NC State’s travel buddy in the ACC, needed to agree to a change.
Either way, the Pack looked like a top-10 squad as it overcame the Pirates. Slama dropped just a single game on Court 1, bouncing back ater mismanaging her match earlier in the day versus No. 62 Bianca Molnar.
Osuigwe delivered a 6-0 first set versus Pirate Reese Calvo after only playing one game before the Pack clinched versus Notre Dame. She closed out with a 6-3 second-set victory. Conway completed a similar arc, winning 6-2, 6-2 after not being able to get out there versus the Fighting Irish. Smejkalova secured her third-straight win on Court 6, 6-4, 6-2.
The Pack will be back in action on Wednesday, April 8 to face Duke in a nonconference matchup at 4 p.m. at Cary Tennis Park.
