With perhaps its biggest season ahead of itself, No. 21 NC State men’s tennis started its 2024 campaign in strong fashion, cruising to a 6-1 win over Northwestern in Raleigh.
The Wolfpack’s season-opening win came courtesy of a consistent and impressive performance in both doubles and singles. NC State quickly captured a 1-0 lead via the doubles round, and even though the Wildcats battled, NC State took five out of six singles courts to start the year in the win column.
“Always great to start the season with a ‘W’,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “Really impressed with Northwestern and their young group and they challenged us in some spots, which was awesome.”
NC State got off to a quick start in doubles; all three of the Pack’s pairs got out to big leads over their opponents. The No. 13 pair of sophomore Martin Borisiouk and junior Joseph Wayand struck first and proved why they earned a top-15 doubles ranking with a 6-3 win.
“It’s really about that consistency of craft, and those two guys know who they are, they know in the doubles what they’re supposed to be doing,” Spencer said. “And so I think you see that consistent performance from both of them. While not perfect by any means, in that sense, I think Joe and Bo really have a good sense of what they’re trying to do out there.”
After “Joe and Bo’s” win on court two, junior Braden Shick and senior Luca Staeheli claimed court three with a 6-2 victory to clinch the point. Within just half an hour, the Wolfpack had a 1-0 lead and never looked back.
Shick carried his momentum into the singles round, dismantling his opponent 6-1, 6-2 to put his team in front 2-0. Like Shick, junior Fons Van Sambeek and senior Robin Catry raced through their first sets, putting NC State in a promising position to take its first match of the season.
Next to strike was Van Sambeek, who was selected by the rest of his team as a captain in the offseason — an honor for anyone on Spencer’s squad.
“I think it’s a leader by example, it’s a guy that has enough in the energy tank to be able to keep pushing the team philosophically as well as action-based,” Spencer said. “And so I think those two things were a logical choice, and that vote was from the guys on the team.”
The Pack’s captain had trouble closing his match out — against a familiar opponent, no less. However, Van Sambeek rallied late in his match and put the Pack in position to clinch with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
“I played the same guy last year, so I knew him a little bit and took away some key moments from that match,” Van Sambeek said. “I served aggressive and got the points that I wanted, and then I had a little bit of trouble closing out the match at 5-2. But he did a good job and reset me a little bit, but at 5-4 I got it done. So I’m very happy with my level, to be honest.”
As part of the Wolfpack’s large group of upperclassmen that entered in the same freshman class Van Sambeek leads by example — a task made much easier when your teammates are your closest friends.
“We’re just a super close group,” Van Sambeek said. “So we’re all like best friends. And I’m very happy that I have come in with this group because they’re honestly my biggest assets as a tennis player. On and off the courts we have so much fun together.”
Facing a united front and a daunting 3-0 deficit, Northwestern tried its best to claw its way back into the match. The Wildcats’ Felix Nordby took Staeheli to the brink in his first set, but the junior slugged out a hard-fought 7-2 victory in a tiebreaker to win it.
Meanwhile, Northwestern’s Presley Thieneman rallied on court one after Catry won his first set 6-3. Even though it looked as though Catry would clinch the Pack’s win at 4-0, he eventually fell in three sets after Thieneman stormed back, marking red-and-white’s only loss on the day.
While Catry didn’t snag the win, Staeheli did. With a 6-4 victory in his second set, the Swiss secured NC State’s first win of its 2024 campaign. After the victory, NC State played out as many matches as it could, including Wayand and Borisiouk’s singles matches on courts five and six.
The doubles duo both won their respective singles matches as they battled on adjacent courts. Borisiouk took his match 6-4, 6-1 while Wayand won his way through an intense third-set tiebreaker to put the final tally at 6-1.
After its first win of the season and a strong all-around performance, NC State will take on Princeton in its next match. First serve against the Tigers is set for Friday, Jan. 19, at 5 p.m. in Raleigh.
