The No. 6 NC State women’s tennis team’s 2022 season came to a close in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships as the Pack lost 4-3 to the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils.

As the rival schools and college tennis powerhouses worked their ways through the bracket to the quarterfinal round, NC State and Duke met in one of the most highly anticipated matches of the entire tournament. With a semifinal berth on the line, the two ACC squads battled it out, but Duke ultimately came out on top. 

After Duke pulled off a daring comeback victory during the season in Raleigh, beating NC State 4-3 after being down 1-3, the Wolfpack was determined to pull off its own come-from-behind victory under the lights in Champaign, Illinois. But despite clutch efforts from multiple members of the Pack in the singles round, the attempted heroic comeback wasn’t in the cards for NC State. 

After losing the early doubles point, which NC State had dominated all season long, the Pack needed to make a strong stand in singles in order to beat the Blue Devils. NC State’s freshman standout, No. 83 Priska Nugroho, continued her dominant form that she had displayed all season long as she impressively won 6-3, 6-2 on court three to tie the match at 1-1. 

While Nugroho dominated her match from beginning to end, the other singles matches did not go as smoothly for NC State. In the only other two-set match on the day, sophomore Abigail Rencheli lost on court two, but Duke didn’t stop there. The Blue Devils also secured court one from No. 11 ranked Jaeda Daniel in three sets, establishing a commanding 3-1 lead. 

However, the Pack fought its way back into the match with two important singles wins on courts five and six. Sophomore Amelia Rajecki claimed court five in three sets, in which she lost the first set in tiebreak, but rolled her Duke opponent in the next two, ending in a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-2 victory. 

Sophomore Sophie Abrams then defeated her Blue Devil opponent on court six with her back against the wall on multiple occasions as Duke threatened to clinch. After splitting her first two sets, Abrams fought through a tense end to her third set, where she won the match in tiebreak. 

Abrams’ 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) win had the Pack level with Duke once again at 3-3 as it had claimed two of the three courts needed to pull off the epic comeback after being down 3-1. 

Attempting to give Duke a taste of its own medicine and finish off the comeback win was senior Nell Miller, who occupied the final court of the match. The senior battled against a number of match points after splitting her first two sets, but found herself down big in the final one. Down 40-0 at 5-1, Miller managed to deny four straight match points in that game alone, but ultimately lost her final set 6-2, with too much of a lead to overcome. 

While the Pack had built a streak of consistently impressive series of singles performances, including today, NC State fell just short of the four courts needed to claim victory against the Blue Devils.

The all-important doubles round did play a factor in the loss, however. The early round went down to the wire as the rival sides split the first two matches. The No. 24 ranked pair of Rencheli and Rajecki won 6-2, but the other courts, occupied by Daniel and Miller as well as Abrams and Nugroho both uncharacteristically lost 6-4 and 6-3, respectively. 

Despite the hard loss to Duke, in the NCAA Championships no less, the 2022 season for the NC State women’s tennis team was nonetheless successful as the Pack put on what was arguably its best season in program history. 

Finishing with a 26-6 record, NC State lived in the top eight ranked teams in the nation all season long and achieved a program-best No. 2 national ranking. Those 26 wins marked a team high and were earned from an well-coached, hard-working and talented team that dominated week to week in both singles and doubles against all opponents.

Furthermore, NC State hosted an NCAA Super Regional round for the first time in team history and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the second straight year in a row. 

While this may be the end of the team’s postseason run, it will not be the end for multiple members of the NC State squad with the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships on the horizon. Daniel and Rencheli will represent the Pack in the singles tournament, while the regular duos of Daniel/Miller and Rajecki/Rencheli will compete in the doubles tournament. 

The singles and doubles championships will be played from May 23-28 in Champaign, Illinois.