No. 4 NC State women’s tennis earned two dominant wins in its doubleheader versus Clemson and ETSU on Sunday, March 5 in Raleigh.
Despite the slew of matches creating a long and tenuous day of tennis, the Wolfpack (10-1, 3-0 ACC) only fell in one bout throughout the doubleheader, beating Clemson (11-4) 6-1 in the early match and sweeping ETSU (8-4) 7-0 in the latter.
“We won the first match 6-1, and I think all ACC wins are good wins, said head coach Simon Earnshaw. “And ETSU is a difficult team and I actually felt like we played well in the ETSU match; we probably played better against them than we did in the first match.”
Versus Clemson, 12 p.m.
The Pack’s early 6-1 victory against Clemson was its third conference win of the season, and NC State got it done in near-flawless fashion, handily winning the doubles point and taking five out of six singles matches.
Juniors Sophie Abrams and Abigail Rencheli started the day off strong in the first doubles round, downing their Tiger opponents 6-2, while freshman Anna Zyryanova and graduate student Alana Smith won 6-3.
With the 1-0 lead in hand, NC State went to work in singles. First, the No. 17-ranked junior Amelia Rajecki cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 victory and was soon followed by junior Gina Dittman, who also blanked her opponent in her first set, eventually winning 6-0, 6-3. Zyryanova followed in Dittman’s footsteps, winning by the same score of 6-0, 6-3 to clinch the win.
Next, the No. 15-ranked Smith beat her Tiger opponent via a third-set superbreaker on court one, ending the match with a final score of 2-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-7). The last NC State win of the early match came from the No. 69-ranked Abrams on court four, who also won in a drawn-out superbreaker 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (13-11). Clemson did get one back on the red-and-white, however, by defeating the No. 51-ranked Rencheli on court three.
Versus ETSU, 4 p.m.
The Wolfpack expanded upon its first performance in its later match, sweeping the Buccaneers 7-0 in another impressive display.
Once again, the Pack came out quick in the doubles round. Abrams and Smith earned the Pack’s first doubles win with a 6-1 decision on court two, while the No. 5-ranked pair of fifth-year senior Nell Miller and Rajecki won 6-2.
After leading 1-0, the Pack ran the table in singles, dominating the Buccaneers from beginning to end. First, Smith handled business on court two, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-2 while Abrams did the same, winning 6-2, 6-2 on court three.
Rajecki clinched NC State’s second win of the day on court one, winning 6-2, 6-4. However, the Pack wasn’t done just yet. Next, Zyryanova and Dittman both beat their respective opponents in quick succession, leaving Miller to battle through a tough three-setter on court five to close out the win. While her opponent gave Miller a battle, she didn’t let the fatigue give in, especially at the end of her superbreaker.
“She really fought hard and that’s kudos to her,” Miller said. “She fought hard through the whole match, but yeah, a big sigh of relief at the end there.”
Miller’s clutch victory gifted the Pack its second win of the day, and preserved NC State’s sweep of the Buccaneers. More importantly, however, it added to the Wolfpack’s impressive win streak. Now with eight wins in a row and five ranked wins in a row, it seems like there’s no slowing down NC State anytime soon.
“There’s no reason we can’t keep it going,” Earnshaw said. “We’ve just got to make sure we’re not our own worst enemy and that we present the best side of ourselves and we have to do that every single day.”
However, no matter how well NC State has played recently, Earnshaw thinks the Wolfpack hasn’t reached its peak level of play just yet.
“I still don’t think we’ve played well yet, actually, strangely enough,” Earnshaw said. “I don’t think we’ve played anywhere near as good of a match as we’re capable of.”
With the sky clearly the limit for Earnshaw and the Wolfpack, the squad looks toward a five-match road trip that begins with a showdown against Miami on Friday, March 10 at 12 p.m.
