After more than a month away from on its eight-match road trip, No. 10 NC State men’s tennis returned to the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh for a showdown with UNC-Greensboro.
The Wolfpack — who jumped from No. 22 to No. 10 in the rankings over its road trip by toppling three ranked opponents — swept the in-state Spartans on Wednesday afternoon. After earning its way to its first ITA Indoor National Team Championships in years and reaching the quarterfinal round, the Pack lost just one set in its dominant return home.
“We were kind of road warriors there for a little bit,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “It was a great honor to be able to go and represent NC State and the ACC at the national team indoors, and we had a good showing there. … So nice to be outside and be home.”
NC State got things done in doubles with a pair of wins on Courts 1 and 2. Seniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek claimed the first win at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in over four weeks while redshirt freshman Jules Leroux and senior Luca Staeheli claimed the second.
Leroux followed up his doubles win with a quick singles victory — a 6-1, 6-1 rout over the Spartans’ Andrew Black. Leroux is part of NC State’s young core occupying the bottom of its lineup. Along with redshirt freshman William Manning and freshman Noah Gabriel, they form a group that showed up in critical, high-pressure situations during the Pack’s battles with a whopping seven ranked or previously ranked teams.
Spencer said their results are a product of a highly competitive practice environment.
“I think we’ve gotten production from a couple of the young guys, and they really handled the environment quite well,” Spencer said. “I will say, we compete a lot in practice in the sense of, we have a really competitive group — everybody wants to win everything. So they want to win a baseline game, they want to win a tiebreaker at practice, they want to win a sprint. And so that competitive drive really translates into the matches.”
Following his practice habits, Manning took down his opponent in two sets, dropping just one game in a 6-1, 6-0 win. In clinch position at 3-0, Van Sambeek clinched the match for the Pack with 6-1, 6-3 win on Court 3.
Shick and Staeheli followed up their fellow seniors’ win with a pair of two-set wins on Courts 1 and 2, respectively. Both veterans gutted out tiebreak wins in their victories — Shick won 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) while Staeheli won 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.
Shick, Van Sambeek, Staeheli and junior Martin Borisiouk are the upperclassmen at the top of its lineup that complement the Pack’s other, younger half. Spencer said this group gets the details right in between matches to find success.
“I think we’ve got a really veteran group at the top and we have guys on the team that are dedicated to the daily process,” Spencer said. “They do all the little things.”
Gabriel finished off the Pack’s 7-0 sweep with a close win on Court 6. After splitting his first two sets 6-3, 5-7, Gabriel battled blow for blow with UNCG’s William Elmers in a third-set superbreaker. Gabriel eventually won the 10-point breaker by a staggering score of 16-14, finally setting down the Spartans for good.
NC State is set to use the wealth of ranked match play it saw over its road trip in conference play. The Pack is set to begin its ACC slate on Friday against No. 17 California. Spencer said his team’s experience against other ranked teams has helped it prepare for an always-challenging gauntlet of ACC teams.
“You’re used to that level,” Spencer said. “And I think everything becomes a lot more normal and match day doesn’t feel bigger than another match.”
NC State will battle the Golden Bears on Friday before taking on No. 6 Stanford on Sunday on its home courts. Play against Cal in Raleigh is set to begin at 4 p.m.
