Mark Gosmann
N.C. State had a productive day Saturday as it beat Yale 4-3 and Campbell 7-0 in the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. After a close call in the match against Yale, the Wolfpack emphasized its strengths to come back to shut Campbell down later that evening.
“What we’re trying to do is be more aggressive, more offensive in doubles,” coach Jon Choboy said. “I want us to be able to assert ourselves a little bit more, taking more control at the net in doubles, and I think for the most part we did that.”
Against Campbell, pairs David Rozek and Jay Weinacker, William Noblitt and Ben Zink, and Val Banada and Will Shaw began the shutout in doubles. The winning streak continued in singles with seniors Shaw at No. 1 and Banada at No. 2.
“It was a pretty tough day today,” Shaw said. “I played two tough matches, and the match this morning was pretty close. I kind of got a little down, got a little fatigued, but I’m happy that I managed to come back.” Shaw won his first singles set, but fell behind 6-1 in the second. He fought back throughout the third set and in a flourish of a finish won 7-5.
“I plugged myself into a bit of a hole,” Shaw said. “I had to come back out of that. I tried not to get too frustrated. I knew getting frustrated wasn’t going to help anything. You may as well try and work through it and hope it’ll come around, which it did.”
To Banada, playing No. 2 was an opportunity to prove he can more than handle play at that level.
“I felt really good,” Banada said. “I got a little tired at the end, but we’ve been working so hard on the court and in practice, I felt like I could stay out there forever. I’ve never felt that, ever.”
Shaw credited the team with having the versatility of a strong starting six.
“We’ve got a lot of good players on this team, and there are a lot of players capable of playing No. 1,” Shaw said. “We’re very interchangeable; from one through six we’re very similar.”
Rozek, a sophomore, also credited work on specific weaknesses as the reason for his win. He echoed the importance of sticking together as a team.
“It’s expected of us to carry our team through tough times and tough matches,” Rozek said. “It’s important to pay attention to that and encourage them and try to get them through it.”
Rozek put the finishing touch on the day with a win by scores of 6-3 and 6-2. The other singles victories included junior Andre Iriarte and sophomore Zink, who both had scores of 6-2 and 6-1, and Weinacker with scores of 6-4 and 6-0.
Though the earlier match against Yale didn’t go as smoothly as the Campbell shutout, Choboy said the team has no regrets. “Yale’s a good team,” Choboy said. “They really came to compete. We were tested, and we certainly didn’t give anything to them. They earned what they got, and you know, it’s going to make us better.”
State will continue to work hard to get better as it travels to Virginia to meet Old Dominion on Saturday.