The No. 20 NC State men’s tennis team fell to the No. 29 Florida State Seminoles 4-3 in its second ACC regular season match on Friday, March 4.
The Wolfpack (10-3, 1-1 ACC) was able to take the lead early, but Florida State (10-2, 1-0 ACC) closed out the match strongly, winning four out of the six singles matchups.
Although the Seminoles managed to come out on top, back-and-forth was the general theme for the hotly contested ACC matchup as both squads gained and lost the advantage multiple times throughout the match. Additionally, three of the singles matches went to a third set, as both teams proved the match could have gone either way.
Going into the final two singles matches, the Wolfpack held a 3-2 lead, and only needed to clinch one more court, but Florida State was able to come back, taking the final two courts and the entire match.
The Pack managed to secure the first point of the match after a fierce doubles contest opened up play. On court one of doubles, the partnership of No. 51 junior Martins Rocens and freshman Fon Van Sambeek managed to take down the Seminole duo of redshirt senior Sebastian Arcila and junior Loris Pourroy handily, winning 6-2.
Florida State then evened the doubles matchup after taking court three. Freshman Josh Karpenschif and redshirt freshman Maks Silagy knocked off the Pack pairing of graduate student Colin Shick and senior Yannai Barkai by a score of 6-3.
This meant the final doubles match on court two would take home the first point. After a back-and-forth set, the No. 34 duo of junior Robin Catry and sophomore Luca Staeheli clinched it, winning in a tight tiebreak of 7-6 (7-5).
After the singles play began, the Seminoles quickly tied up the match at 1-1 snagging the first singles point of the match as No. 101 Catry fell to junior Andreja Petrovic 6-4, 6-3 on court two.
Although the Wolfpack was able to retake its lead via a court-five victory of 6-4, 6-4 from freshman Damien Salvestre over Seminole freshman Youced Rihane, the margin did not last long.
Soon after, the score was re-evened as Florida State took court one. Loris Pourroy took down No. 84 senior Rafa Izquierdo Luque. The first set was close, as Pourroy only narrowly took it by a margin of 7-5. The second set on the other hand was taken easily as Luque fell 6-1.
Then, after falling in the first set, Staeheli won two straight and retook the lead for the Wolfpack. Staeheli took down Sebastian Arcila 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. This gave NC State the 3-2 lead that would later be taken away.
The final two matches saw two Seminoles, senior Richard Thongoana and Karpenschif both win third set contests, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, and 7-6 (7-2)), 2-6, 6-3 over Rocens and Van Sambeek, respectively. These victories sealed the match for the Seminoles, who will no doubt be one of the teams to beat for the Wolfpack in the ACC tournament and later on down the line.
The Wolfpack will look to shake off this defeat later this weekend as the squad travels to Coral Gables, Florida to take on another top 25-ranked ACC team in No. 21 Miami, on Sunday at 1 p.m.
