With a regular season ACC Title on the line in NC State men’s tennis’ regular season finale, the No. 5 Wolfpack needed just one more win to secure its first-ever regular season ACC Title.
However, the red-and-white’s final test was its toughest. With undefeated, No. 1 Wake Forest in town, the Pack was edged out in a titanic slugfest of some of the nation’s best teams, falling 4-2 to the Demon Deacons amidst a record-breaking crowd at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh.
It was the Pack’s most highly-anticipated match of the year, evidenced by an electric, nearly 1300-person crowd that was ready to watch NC State win what might have been its most impressive match in program history. While the Pack put up a fight, the crowd saw the Demon Deacons hoist a regular season ACC trophy by the end of the night.
NC State fell in the doubles round, forcing it to enter singles on the back foot. The red-and-white fell into a deeper hole at 3-1, and despite trying its best to fight back late in the match against the best team in the nation, the Wolfpack couldn’t escape the razor-thin margins it created for itself.
“Just in a couple spots, we weren’t too sharp in the doubles, and that gave them a little momentum going to the singles,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “Singles, that felt like we had enough out there and we just were a little too quick on a couple courts. But also credit to Wake, they’re a good team, and we appreciate Wolfpack nation coming out, that was a great atmosphere. Thought the crowd was awesome, conditions were good, just disappointed for the boys.”
NC State lost the early doubles round to the Demon Deacons. While junior Martin Borisiouk and freshman Nikolay Nedelchev won 6-4 on Court 3, the Wolfpack’s No. 12 pair of senior Luca Staeheli and redshirt freshman Jules Leroux fell 6-4 on Court 2. The round boiled down to the Pack’s No. 7 pair of seniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek against Wake Forest’s Luca Pow and DK Suresh Ekambaram.
While they put up a fight, Shick and Van Sambeek ultimately lost to their foes 6-3 to decide the round.
Wake entered singles up 1-0 and expanded on that lead with a lightning-quick win from Pow over Leroux on Court 5 in singles where Pow swept his opponent 6-0, 6-0. NC State responded with a win from No. 32 Borisiouk on Court 2 over Wake’s impressive No. 6 Suresh Ekambaram.
Borisiouk’s first-class win gave a bit of life to NC State, but No. 29 Shick’s loss to No. 17 Stefan Dostanic put the Pack’s hopes of a win in dire straits. The Pack’s leading senior had a handful with Dostantic, who set down Shick 6-3, 6-2.
“They’ve got a great player at number one and that was a tall order for Braden today,” Spencer said. “And yeah I mean, it’s going to take more to beat those guys than what we had today. But we have a lot, we have a lot more that we can give.”
Down 3-1, NC State was holding onto hope on Courts 4 and 5 while No. 89 Staeheli churned out a win over Wake Forest’s No. 105 Ioannis Xilas in a 6-4, 6-2 result that inched the Pack closer at 3-2. Staeheli and Borisiouk’s succinct singles sets over their opponents were the highlight of NC State’s fight against the nation’s No. 1 team.
“The performance that Luca and [Borisiouk] had at two and three singles was comprehensive and fantastic,” Spencer said. “And the rest of us, we just need to get a little bit better in that situation.”
Both redshirt freshman William Manning and Van Sambeek were left to battle in their matches on Courts 4 and 5, respectively. Both lost their first set and dealt with pressure from the scoreboard. While Manning pushed his second set into a tiebreak, Van Sambeek ultimately fell in straight sets to Wake’s Charlie Robertson 6-4, 6-4, spelling defeat for NC State.
The Pack’s 4-2 loss sets it up to play at 6:30 p.m. as the No. 2 seed in the ACC Championship in Cary, getting a bye to the quarterfinals.
Spencer said he expects his team to play better in big spots in the Tournament if it intends to succeed. NC State has not won an ACC Championship since 1979, and would likely have to beat the Demon Deacons if it wants to bring home hardware.
However, competing in the best conference in men’s college tennis is no easy task. Tough teams like Stanford, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Virginia are just a few of the other formidable teams NC State will have to churn through on the way to a potential championship.
“It’s just a ridiculously tough tournament,” Spencer said. “I mean there’s five teams in the top 10 of the rankings, and another four or five that are in the top 25 so whoever we get is going to be really good, and will have already had a match. So we have to come out, we have to be ready to go and we have to be hungry and be excited to play for another championship.”
NC State will play just 20 minutes away from Raleigh at Cary Tennis Park on Friday at 6:30 p.m. with an ACC Championship in its crosshairs.
