After participating in several tournaments during the months of September and October, the women’s tennis team has begun its season. N.C. State is off to a 2-0 start with a pair of sweeps against UNC-Greensboro and Gardner-Webb.
The Wolfpack hope to improve upon last year’s 9-14 (1-9 ACC) record and 10th place finish in the conference. To do so, they will need a strong performance by No. 1 seed Barbara Orlay who posted 12 singles wins a year ago.
“It really starts with the seniors Nandita and Barbara,” coach Hans Olsen said. “The girls have set their expectations high and that’s different from last year … We’re expecting to play our best as the spring goes on.”
Orlay is currently ranked No. 90 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and competed at first seed virtually all of last year for the Pack.
In this, her final year, she will try to regain the form that made her a member of the 2004 All-ACC team.
“I would really like to make the NCAA’s this season, it’s my last season,” Orlay said. “[My goal is] to reach the NCAA’s and just play a good hard season and win more ACC matches.”
Sweden native Elin Stahl-Johansson competed at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots for most of last year, compiling nine singles wins as a freshman.
“I know more what to expect now, I know how the other teams play and we can beat the really good teams,” Stahl-Johansson said. “We had a little too much respect last year because we didn’t know what to expect but now we’re more prepared.”
The added year’s experience for her and fellow sophomore Julia Roach has both of them feeling more confident going into this season. Roach led the team in wins with 13 and also won two conference doubles matches with Orlay.
“It’s got me really excited to get back into competition,” Roach said. “The fall is more individual, the spring is a lot more fun with your team. I still get butterflies but I kind of know what to expect now. I’ve raised my expectations, I know what I can and can’t do.”
For State to move up in the conference standings they will need to do so in an ACC that hasn’t gotten easier, with 10 conference players ranked in the top 50 in singles.
“The ACC is the premier conference for women’s tennis in the country,” Olsen said. “All the teams are stronger, there’s no easy matches for us and it’s nice to be a part of such an elite group.”
Other returning players include junior Agustina Arechavaleta who picked up nine wins last year, and Nandita Chandrasekar, who sat out all of last spring with a torn ACL.
“It’s great to have her back,” Olsen said of Chandrasekar. “She’s excited to be playing again and her game is getting stronger every day. The team is feeling good that she’s back. Anybody that knows Nandita knows that she has a contagious positiveness about her that is definitely spreading already.”
The team is an even mixture of experience and youth with five juniors and seniors and six sophomores and freshmen. Alejandra Guerra, one of the four newcomers, teamed with Orlay during the fall and the tandem now rank No. 10 in doubles in the Southeast Region of the ITA.
“She is a gameday player, she likes to step up in the big situations,” Olsen said. “I think both [she and Niels Barringer] are going to bring a lot to our team this year — I’m excited about that.”
Guerra, a three-time singles and doubles national champion of Mexico, led State in fall singles wins going 12-4.
Orlay said she didn’t feel that she was in a set leadership position, saying there isn’t a big emphasis on being a senior or freshman — just on being a teammate.
Olsen said he believes the tightly-knit chemistry that they have formed has set this team up for success.
“That will be key for us, I think that the team is a real team,” Olsen said. “I think that’s what they love about what they do and it really comes through in the matches and practice.”
