NC State men’s tennis picked up its third win of the season in a strong 4-0 sweep against VCU during the first round of matches of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
The Wolfpack (3-2) was met with resistance from the Rams (4-1) throughout the entire match but pulled out the sweep thanks to some solid singles and doubles play from its most reliable players while competing in Columbia, South Carolina. After falling in its last two matches, the Pack got just what it was looking for at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend: a win.
While the red-and-white won the early doubles point, it was actually VCU who took the first win of the day, downing sophomore Joseph Wayand and redshirt sophomore Braden Shick on court three. Even though the Rams took the first doubles win, NC State didn’t think twice about winning the other two courts.
The No. 38-ranked pair of sophomore Fons Van Sambeek and senior Martins Rocens defeated their Rams opponents 6-2, and soon after, senior Robin Catry and junior Luca Staeheli finished the job, beating their ranked opponents 6-4 to get the 1-0 edge over VCU.
There was no shortage of excitement in the subsequent singles round. But even with three tiebreakers and as just as many three-set matches across the various courts, NC State remained perfect in terms of match score.
Catry doubled that score early on in the round, defeating his opponent 6-4, 6-4, while his doubles partner, Staeheli, added another singles win to the tally. His 6-2, 6-4 victory put NC State in clinch position while most other matches across the venue still pressed on.
Then Shick, who’s been nothing short of impressive so far this season for the Pack, clinched the match at 4-0 with his gritty 7-5, 7-6 (9-7) win that culminated in a tense tiebreak.
The remaining three matches, all three-setters that could have gone either way, were stopped once Shick clinched the win.
Rocens’ match against the No. 40-ranked Matisse Bobichon carried over into a third set after the senior nearly won the match in a second-set tiebreaker. Van Sambeek’s match also was stopped before the sophomore could complete what was heading towards a three-set win. Finally, No. 122 fifth-year Rafa Izquierdo Luque’s match went unfinished during his third set due to the clinch.
The win over VCU not only gets NC State back in the win column after dropping its last two matches to No. 13 Harvard and No. 24 Northwestern but gets the Pack one game closer to competing in the ITA Indoor Championships. To get there, though, it’ll have to defeat its toughest opponent yet– the No. 8 South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Pack’s showdown with the Gamecocks in the second match of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m.
