No. 8 NC State women’s tennis wrapped up its 2023 regular season with a senior day celebration and a subsequent 7-0 sweep of the visiting Virginia Tech Hokies.
The season finale saw graduate student Alana Smith and fifth-year senior Nell Miller — two players instrumental to the program’s success in the past couple of seasons — honored for senior day. Right after, the Wolfpack (20-4, 10-3 ACC) put up a dominant showing in its season finale and swept the Hokies (10-13, 1-12 ACC).
Before the 7-0 thrashing, Smith and Miller were honored at the pre-match senior day ceremony. Both have been pillars of the team and have played vital roles in making NC State a regular within the top-10 in the past few seasons. Their individual accomplishments don’t disappoint, either.
Despite an injury sidelining Smith for the 2022 season, the All-American will go down as an NC State great. Her doubles and singles prowess can’t go understated, and with her singles victory against Virginia Tech, she became the second player in program history with 100 singles wins and 100 doubles wins.
“I’ve had an amazing five years,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t change it at all — even my injury, because I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have that. My four years here have been amazing.”
While Miller has only played two full seasons with the Pack, she’s also been crucial to building NC State’s tennis legacy. Namely, she’s done it with her doubles national championship title in 2022 — the first national title in program history.
“I haven’t been here nearly as long as Alana, but it’s been a really great experience,” Miller said. “All credit to [head coach Simon Earnshaw] and [assistant coach David Secker] — they make every day just a great day. It’s gonna be tough to leave, but we’ve still got a bit ahead of us.”
NC State still had a job to do, however, and brought the fight to the Hokies right from the get-go. While Miller and Smith were paired up in doubles as part of senior day, the Pack’s other two pairs stole their thunder by beating them to doubles wins before they could. Freshmen Diana Shnaider and Anna Zyryanova won 6-1 on court three, while juniors Sophie Abrams and Abigail Rencheli beat their opponents 6-2 to clinch the point.
NC State tallied another point in singles due to a retirement on Rencheli’s court, bringing the count to 2-0. Shortly after, junior Gina Dittmann rolled her Hokie opponent 6-1, 6-0 on court five.
To clinch the win, No. 15 Shnaider cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Virginia Tech’s No. 54 Ozlem Uslu for her third straight-sets singles win against a ranked opponent in a row. She was followed by Abrams’ 6-4, 6-4 win on four.
To finish the match, Smith and Miller fittingly finished their matches in dramatic fashion. After splitting their first two sets on their respective courts, both fought to preserve the sweep via match-deciding superbreakers.
“We enjoyed being last on as well,” Miller said. “We thought, ‘You know what, if we’re gonna go out, let’s go out in a tiebreaker.’”
With the spotlight on them once again, both Miller and Smith prevailed, receiving more applause from the crowd after each and every point in the breakers. Smith finished her match with a 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-7) scoreline, and Miller won via a 7-5, 0-6, 1-0 (10-7) decision.
With its regular season wrapped up, NC State turns its attention to the postseason, specifically the fast-approaching ACC tournament, a competition in which the Wolfpack has underperformed as of late. While that can be attributed to the high level of competition in the conference — including fellow Triangle teams UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke — NC State is determined to up its level at this year’s championships in the not-so-far Cary, North Carolina.
“We’ve not done well in the ACC tournament,” Earnshaw said. “It’s a good opportunity for us, and hopefully we can get ready for Friday and be ready to go. It’s here in Cary, and that’s great for the three Triangle schools. Hopefully we all feature in the latter stages and we get some people out there to see the level of tennis that there is in the ACC on the women’s side.”
NC State will take the 20-minute drive to Cary Tennis Park for the tournament, where the team is almost sure to play common ACC foes such as the Tar Heels and Blue Devils. After that, the Wolfpack will turn to the NCAA tournament, where it’ll compete for a national championship alongside those same teams.
“This team has got a really great opportunity in both the ACC and NCAAs,” Miller said. “We just have got to really go for it, and I think we’re good to go.”
The Pack’s postseason journey starts Friday, April 21 at 12:30 p.m. in Cary. The opponent has yet to be determined.
