The No. 21 Wolfpack men’s tennis squad claimed its fifth ACC win of the year as the Pack beat Clemson 5-2 via a strong singles showing from its lineup.
Now 16-7 on the season, this is the Pack’s third win in a row, all of which have come against conference opponents. Despite losing the early doubles point, NC State showed out in the singles round, winning five out of six singles matches as the squad continues to heat up entering the final stretch of the regular season.
NC State was able to step up and played one of its best singles rounds all year as four of its five wins came in straight sets. The Wolfpack’s young members also played a crucial role in the win against the Tigers, all putting on impressive performances in the singles round, capping a strong showing from all parts of the team, including the emerging young core.
“Yeah, I think we had to upgrade focus today,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “We had to have a passion for that and I think that that attributes to the character of the guys on our team. Like I said, it’s not easy for freshmen to come into the ACC, you know, in their first year and produce performances like that.”
Sophomore Braden Shick put the Pack on the board with the first singles win of the day. He was able to cruise through his first set, and while he was presented with more of a challenge in the second, came through 6-0, 6-4 for the Pack.
Next to score for the Pack was junior Martins Rocens, who also dominated his first set but was met with much more competition in his second. After a heated back and forth second set, Rocens dominated the tiebreaker, putting the Pack up 2-1 with his 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) win.
“Maybe it was not the prettiest tennis but the idea was just to keep battling for every point, be super tough, don’t give any free points away and make it tough for the guy and the guy also stepped up, he didn’t give me free points,” said Rocens. “But in the breaker I really stepped up, it was super super tough and it paid off.”
Next to win for the Pack was freshman Damien Salvestre who put on a routine 6-3, 6-4 win on court four, putting NC State in clinch position. Sophomore Luca Staeheli clinched the win for the Wolfpack, winning in straight sets, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, to make it 4-1.
The Pack added one more win at the end of the match as freshman Fons Van Sambeek won in three sets on court five. Van Sambeek split his first two sets, but rolled in his third, winning it 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Simultaneously, the Tigers added their only other point by defeating junior Robin Catry in a super breaker after Catry and his opponent split their first two sets.
Despite its strong doubles play out of late, the Pack failed to claim the early doubles point. While heavily contested, the Tigers took the doubles in a tiebreak on the last remaining court. Catry and Staeheli took the second court 6-4, but the Pack could not emerge with another court win in the round. However, the squad compensated by winning five of six singles matches in its fifth conference win of the year.
NC State is set to face its rivals Duke and UNC next weekend to finish off the team’s regular season. With both ACC opponents ranked in the top twenty, the Wolfpack will need everyone to step up, including its young members that continually show how much they can bring to every match.
“Just keep going every practice, dial in, work on our stuff,” Rocens said. “Every single guy has their own unique things that they’re working on. So we’re just gonna do our best to prepare and we’ll be ready for battle.”
The Pack will host No. 19 Duke on Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m.
