NC State men’s tennis squared off with the Harvard Crimson for the third year in a row. And for the third year in a row, the Ivy League opponent was a few steps ahead of their southeast opponents.
The No. 22 Wolfpack (2-1) fell 5-2 in its third straight loss against the No. 21 Crimson (1-1). Despite competing at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh, NC State’s slow start in the doubles round carried over to singles where the Pack won just two of six matches.
Like the last two matchups with the Crimson — a 6-1 loss in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2024 and a close 4-3 loss in Raleigh in 2023 — NC State lost the early doubles point. However, it wasn’t without a fight.
Harvard struck first on court three, defeating the pair of redshirt freshman William Manning and junior Martin Borisiouk in a 6-2 result. NC State battled back with an impressive win on court two from redshirt freshman Jules Leroux and senior Luca Staeheli, who pulled off some highlight-reel-worthy rallies on the way to a 6-3 victory.
Despite the win on court two, Harvard finished off a 6-4 win on court one between a battle that featured two ranked doubles duos. Harvard’s No. 71 Benjamin Privara and Masato Perera beat NC State’s No. 102 pair of seniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek to move out to a 1-0 lead in the contest.
Harvard quickly capitalized on its lead in the singles round. The Crimson’s Daniel Milacsky defeated No. 17 Shick on the court in a quick 6-1, 6-2 rout.
However, No. 97 Staeheli struck back with a swift two-set win of his own on court three. Staeheli defeated Rohan Murali 6-0, 6-1 to get the red-and-white on the board at 2-1. From there, the two sides continued to swap the next couple of points between each other.
The Crimson got back at the Wolfpack with a win over Van Sambeek on court four. The Pack’s team captain put up a fight, especially in the first set — evidenced by a close 7-6 (7-3) tiebreak loss. However, Van Sambeek dropped his second set 6-3, putting Harvard into clinch position at 3-1.
NC State tallied its second and final point of the night with a tough victory from Leroux on court six, who fought through a tiebreaker at the end of his first set to win 7-6 (7-2), 6-1.
At 3-2, the Crimson finally put the contest to bed with a hard-fought win on court two over No. 26 Borisiouk in a 6-4, 6-4 result.
Harvard added insult to injury by winning the final match on the day in a win over Manning on court five, one that ended in a third-set superbreaker. Manning ultimately lost 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8).
NC State will move on from its first loss of the season to the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Wolfpack is set to travel to Starkville, Mississippi and will face off against LSU in the first round of the early-season tournament on Friday. NC State will spend the next month on the road as it plays through the ITA event and finishes off its nonconference schedule.
First serve against the Tigers in Starkville is yet to be announced.
