The No. 2 NC State women’s tennis team emerged victorious from yet another intense, ranked ACC matchup as the Pack went head-to-head with No. 15 Wake Forest and won 4-3 in a thrilling match.
After going down 3-2 to the Demon Deacons, the Pack battled its way back and took two straight singles matches courtesy of sophomore Abigail Rencheli, who tied the match, and senior Nell Miller, who for the second ranked conference match in a row, clinched the day for the Wolfpack, as the team improves to 15-1 on the season and 3-0 in the ACC.
Much like the Pack’s match on Sunday, March 6, against Miami, Miller was relied on to win the deciding singles match to take the day for the Pack. She has now delivered both times as she clinched another 4-3 conference victory for the Pack with her 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 win on court four. After dropping the first set, Miller narrowly managed to win the second set in a tiebreak before taking her final set 6-4 to win it.
To get to 3-3, however, Rencheli had to take her match, which she did 6-4, 7-6 on court two. The Wolfpack again relied on stringing multiple singles wins late in matches to get the job done against ranked conference opponents, much like the match against Miami.
The Wolfpack had to work extremely hard for the four singles matches it needed to win as the team failed to win the doubles point, a rare occurrence on the season for the Pack. One of these matches was sophomore Sophie Abrams’ 6-2, 7-6 win and while she had to fight for her second set, put the Wolfpack on the board 1-1 with the first singles win.
NC State’s other singles win came from freshman Priska Nugroho who, after losing her first set 6-2, stormed back and only lost three games more in her strong second and third sets in her 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 for the Pack’s second point of the day.
Wake Forest accumulated points via the doubles round and singles wins that were not easily given up by Wolfpack members. Graduate student Jaeda Daniel and sophomore Amelia Rajecki each lost in three sets after giving their opponents a tough fight on courts one and six, respectively.
The Pack have now repeatedly shown the ability to win tense, ranked ACC matchups with players much like Miller who step up in those crucial moments, making clutch plays and winning important points, showing why NC State is one of, if not the best team in the country.
The win also makes head coach Simon Earnshaw the new winningest coach in program history with 139 victories and counting with NC State.
The Wolfpack take a much needed 10-day break then is back at it with a slew of conference opponents on a four-match road trip starting Friday, March 18 at 5 p.m. against Clemson.
