On Thursday, the NC State men’s and women’s tennis teams will compete in the five-day Intercollegiate Tennis Association Carolina Regionals. The men’s tournament will be hosted in Cary and the women will compete in Chapel Hill.
Recent meets have seen dominant play from the men. So far in team’s fall season, Head Coach Jon Choboy’s squad has completed successful showings in the Duke Fab Four Invitational in Cary, the Illini Invitational in Chicago, Illinois and the ITA All-American Invitational in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The doubles pair of senior Robbie Mudge and sophomore Ian Dempster have proved themselves as a dominant pair since last season, as the tandem is ranked ninth in the country in the ITA preseason doubles rankings. At the ITA All-Americans last week, Mudge and Dempster advanced to the consolation semifinals before falling to the second-ranked pair in the country.
Other Pack players have contributed strong doubles performances as well, such as sophomore Nick Horton and senior Beck Bond, who are sure to become important factors in the team’s doubles play.
While experimenting with player combinations, Bond and Dempster won a doubles draw title at the Duke Fab Four Invite to open the season.
The Wolfpack singles squad doesn’t look too shabby either, as senior Austin Powell, Dempster, senior Robbie Mudge and Horton are poised to carry their team to a successful showing in the regionals tournament.
Freshman Shoti Meparidze played aggressively in his singles debut in the Pack’s last meeting at the ITA All-Americans, and it will be interesting to see how the young player develops as the season progresses.
In last year’s ITA Regionals, junior Thomas Weigel and Mudge each advanced to the quarterfinals in the singles draw.
In doubles play of last years regional, Mudge and former player Sean Weber advanced to the doubles final and defeated Duke’s top-10 pair of Michael Redlicki and Jason Tahir in the semifinals.
The women’s team hopes to achieve several victories at the regionals tournament in both singles and doubles, as the squad has transformed into a new team, led by first-year Head Coach Simon Earnshaw.
In singles, junior Joanna Nalborska and sophomore Liza Fieldsend have gained impressive starts and will prove to be the vital features of the team.
Seniors Elisha Hande and Sophie Nelson have risen to become the upperclassmen leaders of the team, as the two have helped contribute veteran guidance and leadership to the younger athletes.
It is not clear to which doubles tandems will matchup at the tournament, as the team continues to experiment with different combos before deciding concrete doubles teams.
Thus far in the season, the Wolfpack women have competed in the Georgia Tech Invitational and the Wake Forest Invitational.
Both men and women hope to prove themselves as strong contenders within the ACC, as the Pack competes against its regional foes on Thursday.
The singles champion and the doubles champion will earn an automatic bid into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships in Flushing, New York.
