No. 22 NC State men’s tennis provided an electric evening of entertainment at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on Wednesday, April 12.
The Wolfpack played host to a large and raucous crowd in its final regular season home match of 2023. The droves of fans in attendance watched, cheered and willed their team to a thrilling 4-2 victory over Wake Forest in the midweek epic.
While Wake Forest (22-10, 6-5 ACC) had gotten the better of the Pack (14-8, 8-3 ACC) in the two teams’ previous seven matchups, the red-and-white played its best tennis in the match’s most important moments to secure one of its biggest wins of the season.
“I think it’s just a really special group and I’m really happy for them,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “I’m happy for our program to get a big win at the right time of the season for sure, and we’ll enjoy this one.”
To start the night, NC State pulled off a nail-biting victory in the all-important doubles round. However, redshirt sophomore Braden Shick stole the show at the end of the match when he clinched the victory with a dramatic 7-6, 6-4 win on court four. With just Shick and junior Luca Staeheli remaining for the Pack — on adjacent courts, no less — Shick used the crowd’s energy to rally from a 3-0 second-set deficit.
“Second set, I got down 3-0, but then it was amazing,” Shick said. “It kind of came down to just me and Luca at that point. All the other guys came off and the attention came on our courts. The crowd really started to get loud and I tried my best to feed off that. You’ve got to use the home court advantage.”
With the horde of Wolfpack fans in his corner, Shick chipped away at the deficit game by game. As he got closer to the clinch, the crowd got louder and Shick gained more momentum. By the end, the fans were on their feet and gave one more roar as Shick celebrated with his teammates after his match-winning point.
Hours before that, though, NC State’s doubles pairs warmed up that very same crowd with an exhilarating win in the early round. Wake Forest easily took the first court, but soon after, the No. 18 pair of Staeheli and senior Robin Catry won 6-3 on court two.
That left the point in the hands of the No. 21 pair of fifth-year Rafa Izquierdo Luque and sophomore Joseph Wayand. The duo eventually worked themselves out a late-set deficit to take the court 7-5 and gain the 1-0 advantage.
Once singles started, each team secured a win apiece to make the score 2-1. First, the Demon Deacons quickly defeated sophomore Fons Van Sambeek, but Catry — who has been ruthless in singles as of late — made quick work of his opponent in a 6-0, 6-4 victory.
Wake Forest landed the next win — a straight-sets victory over Izquierdo Luque on court one to make it 2-2. At that point, Shick and Staeheli were working toward wins on their respective courts, but it was Wayand who won a crucial match on court six 7-5, 6-3 to put the Pack into clinch position.
Once there, Shick and Staeheli — as well as the crowd — turned up the heat, and the Demon Deacons had no response. In the end, Shick clinched before his teammate could finish the day’s only three-setter.
After the win — one of the Pack’s most memorable of the season — NC State will finish out its regular season slate with a match at Boston College before the team sets its sights on the ACC Championships and the rest of the postseason.
“We can’t take Boston College lightly — they’re a good ACC school,” Shick said. “Got to finish out the season strong, want to get good seeding for the [ACC] tournament. It’s championship season as [Spencer] likes to say, and the good teams are just getting started.”
The next match is set for Friday, April 14 at 3 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
