No. 14 NC State women’s tennis 2024 season came to a close in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Championships after being swept by No. 2 Stanford 4-0 in Palo Alto, California.

Stanford, the most storied program in college women’s tennis history, sat down the Wolfpack with ease while hosting the Super Regional Round. The soon-to-be ACC opponent got one step closer to its potential 21st NCAA Championship with the win over NC State.

While the Wolfpack swept Stanford in the schools’ first-ever match in the semifinal round of last season’s NCAA Championships, the Cardinal gave NC State a taste of its own medicine in Palo Alto. The hosts won a contested doubles round and soon ran away with the match, holding the Pack to just one set win in a ruthless singles round.

The Pack’s leading doubles pair of No. 12 senior Amelia Rajecki and freshman Maddy Zampardo started the match with a win on court one. The pair defeated the duo of No. 10 Connie Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova with a 6-3 decision.

However, Stanford got the better of NC State’s two other pairs on courts two and three. First, the Cardinal defeated the No. 29 pair of senior Sophie Abrams and sophomore Anna Zyryanova 6-3. With the all-important doubles point on the line, Stanford pulled out a 6-4 win over seniors Gina Dittmann and Abigail Rencheli on court three to gain the advantage.

NC State held out hope after the close doubles round. However, the Cardinal turned up the heat once singles rolled around. Stanford took quick and dominant leads on all but one court, most notably defeating No. 2 Rajecki, No. 71 Rencheli and No. 62 Zyryanova in two sets each on courts one, two and three, respectively.

Those three ranked matches were the deciding factor in the Sweet 16 bout. With each team’s ranked players facing each other, Stanford came out on the winning side on every one.

First sitting down Zyryanova on court three in a 6-1, 7-5 result, No. 29 Yepifanova and the Cardinal avenged their court one doubles loss by doubling Stanford’s lead. From there, No. 7 Ma defeated Rencheli 6-1, 6-4 on court two to put her team in clinch position.

With Stanford threatening to clinch on multiple courts, there was little hope for NC State to mount a comeback, let alone earn a point. The Pack’s lone singles set win came from Dittmann on court four — outside of that, Zampardo and Abrams had also lost their first sets on courts five and six, respectively.

To finish the match — and put an end to NC State’s season — No. 25 Angelica Blake defeated Rajecki 6-3, 6-3 on court one to move on to the Elite Eight round of the tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

With the loss, NC State’s mission to reach the NCAA Championship final came to an early close. The bout in Palo Alto also marked the final match in the collegiate careers of four of the Pack’s seniors — Rajecki, Rencheli, Dittmann and Abrams.