After beating then-No. 9 Mississippi State weeks ago at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, No. 19 NC State men’s tennis punched its ticket to the annual ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Dallas.

While competing at the Indoors, NC State pulled off a statement win over No. 8 Kentucky on Friday to advance to the quarterfinals. However, after the Pack’s dominant 4-1 win over the Wildcats, the red-and-white’s 2025 ITA Indoors campaign finally ended against No. 2 Wake Forest on Saturday in a 4-2 loss.

The Wolfpack played another ACC opponent in No. 5 Virginia in a consolation match on Sunday to close out its weekend in Dallas but lost to the Cavaliers in a 4-1 result.

Versus No. 8 Kentucky, 4-1 win

As the No. 5 seed in the tournament, NC State was pitted against the No. 4-seeded Kentucky Wildcats in the opening round of the Indoors on Friday. The Wolfpack secured its third ranked win of the season thanks to a strong start in doubles and a swift round of singles.

The Wolfpack’s pair of ranked doubles duos came up big against the Wildcats, claiming victory on Courts 1 and 2 to propel the red-and-white into singles. The No. 33 pair of redshirt freshman Jules Leroux and senior Luca Staeheli beat their opponents 6-4 on Court 2 while the No. 28 pair of seniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek took down their opposition by a score of 7-5 to give their team the early lead.

Leroux built off his doubles win with the first victory in the singles round — the redshirt freshman doubled his team’s lead with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Kentucky’s Matt Rankin on Court 6.

Kentucky battled back with an upset win over No. 16 Shick on Court 1. Despite Shick’s ranking, the Pack’s top-ranked player fell 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, setting the score at 2-1.

After that, however, NC State took two straight matches on Courts 2 and 4 to secure the win over Kentucky. No. 45 junior Martin Borisiouk defeated Kentucky’s No. 62 Jaden Weekes in a ranked matchup on Court 2. Borisiouk finished off Weekes with a second-set tiebreak win with a final score of 6-3, 7-6 (10-4) before Van Sambeek toppled Kentucky’s No. 95 Charlelie Cosnet 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

After Van Sambeek’s three-set victory, the Wolfpack clinched the win against the Wildcats at 4-1 and advanced to the quarterfinals against one of the best teams in the nation and a bitter rival in Wake Forest.

Versus No. 2 Wake Forest, 4-2 loss

NC State and Wake Forest have had plenty of intense, emotional and high-stakes matches in recent years. This year, the two foes met in Dallas at the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor National Team Championships where the higher-ranked Demon Deacons put away the Pack in a 4-2 result.

Unlike its match against Kentucky, the Pack was unable to secure the doubles point in its second match of the weekend. However, NC State’s talented duos did put up a fight — Shick and Van Sambeek even captured the first win of the round in a ranked battle against the No. 30 pair of Stefan Dostanic and Dhaksineswar Suresh in a 6-3 victory.

Despite the win on Court 1, NC State lost Courts 2 and 3 to the Demon Deacons. Leroux and Staeheli lost 6-4 to the No. 3 pair of Luca Pow and Luciano Tacchi while Manning and freshman Nikolay Nedelchev — who saw his first college tennis action of his career — fell 6-3.

Down 1-0, NC State evened the score with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) singles win from Staeheli over No. 98 Charlie Robertson. Wake Forest rebounded with a win on Court 1 over Shick, where the junior lost back-to-back tiebreaks in a two-set loss to No. 17 Dostanic.

The Demon Deacons added to their lead with a three-set win on Court 5 over Nedelchev in the freshman’s first-ever singles match. NC State battled against Wake Forest’s 3-1 lead with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win from Borisiouk over his ranked opponent on Court 2.

Despite Borisiouk’s win, Wake Forest sealed the deal with a three-set victory over Leroux on Court 6, defeating NC State in the quarterfinal round and sentencing its opponents to a consolation match against Virginia on Sunday.

Versus No. 5 Virginia, 4-1 loss

NC State lost its second match in a row at the tournament against another ACC opponent in No. 5 Virginia. The consolation match resulted in a 4-1 loss against the Cavaliers, failing to win a singles match after claiming the doubles point.

Leroux and Staeheli won their second doubles match of the weekend against Virginia’s ranked pair on Court 2 in a 6-3 rout. The Cavs responded with a win on court three over Manning and Nedelchev before Shick and Van Sambeek claimed a close, 7-5 ranked win on Court 1 for a 1-0 advantage heading into singles.

However, Virginia defeated NC State in four straight singles matches to earn its 4-1 win. Nedelchev fell first on Court 5 while Shick fell in straight sets on Court 1 against Virginia’s No. 44 Rafael Jodar.

With the lead in hand, the Cavaliers then beat Van Sambeek 6-2, 7-5 on Court 4 and Manning fell in three sets on Court 6 to end the Wolfpack’s time in Dallas.

NC State will take a much-needed break after three matches in just as many days — the Pack is set to play next on Feb. 26 against UNC-Greensboro when it finally returns home to Raleigh.

First serve against the in-state opponent is set for 3 p.m. at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.