The No. 24 NC State men’s tennis team swiftly took down No. 25 UCF in a 4-0 clinch match.
After closely competing with the Knights (1-5) for the doubles point, the three singles matches needed to win were comfortably taken care of by the front end of the Wolfpack’s (4-2) singles lineup.
Despite losing the first doubles court, the Wolfpack won the next two to take a 1-0 lead. Redshirt senior Joseph Schrader and freshman Joseph Wayand won 6-4, while junior Robin Catry and sophomore Luca Staeheli won in a tense match that went down to tiebreak, winning 7-6 (7-5) to clinch the doubles point.
Junior Martins Rocens was first to strike in singles with a score of 6-3, 6-0 and had a near flawless second set to give the Pack a 2-0 lead.
Even though his match went to three sets, Catry was able to finish second in singles and boost the Pack’s lead to 3-0. With a score of 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, Catry quickly overpowered his opponent and flew through his impressive third set to win despite dropping his second set.
To finish the day, Staeheli clinched the win for the Wolfpack on a 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) win. Despite being challenged at the end of the second set and forced to go to tiebreak, Staeheli was able to win clutch points to give his team the victory. Play was stopped before senior Rafa Izquierdo Luque could finish his match on court one, where he was down 4-3 in the third set.
With a strong performance in both singles and doubles, the NC State men’s tennis squad bounces back with an impressive ranked win after a two game losing streak. The Pack is now 2-2 in their last four matches, all being against ranked teams.
After clearing one of the tougher stretches of its schedule, it has the opportunity to string wins together before its first ACC game at the end of the month against Boston College.
The men’s tennis team now look forward to a dual action day on Saturday, Feb. 12 where it will face Presbyterian at 11 a.m. followed by NC Central at 3 p.m.
