The No. 20 men’s tennis team boasts its highest ranking ever as it travels to Durham today for a conference showdown with No. 21 Duke.

Despite going 1-2 last week in conference play, the Wolfpack moved up one spot in the national polls after barely losing to No. 3 Virginia 4-3 on Friday, and defeating Virginia Tech on Sunday.

The 4-3 win over Virginia Tech came down to a decisive match in which senior William Noblitt had to win for State to come away with the victory. Coach Jon Choboy said he felt confident in his senior in a pressured situation.

“There’s nobody I’d rather have in that situation than him,” Choboy said. “He’s just going to play. I felt good when it came down to him.”

Despite the loss to Virginia, sophomore Jay Weinacker said the close nature of the match helped build the team’s confidence.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Weinacker said. “I know it’s no consolation to lose 4-3, but it does give you a sense of where we should be and that we can make our ranking whatever we want. We can play with anybody.”

Weinacker, who is the only current player to beat Duke in singles last season, said the team knows what to expect from Duke and anticipates it will perform well.

“They’re going to be tough again, but I definitely don’t think they’re as strong as last year,” Weinacker said. “And we went 4-3 with them last year and had chances to win the match last year. With as confident as we are now, it’s a match that we think we should win.”

One key factor in today’s match, according to Choboy, is the health of junior Nick Cavaday. Cavaday struggled with a lower body injury this weekend, Choboy said.

“We’ll get him back at some point. Hopefully it will be tomorrow,” Choboy said.

“He won’t be 100 percent, but he hasn’t been 100 percent since the Blue-Gray [Invitational]. But it’s going to be a really tight match, I think — especially if we have all of our guys. You never know. Maybe they have a few guys banged up too.”

Choboy said the doubles point will be essential in today’s match as both teams boast a doubles tandem ranked in the top 11 nationally.

“It’s going to be important to play good doubles, and they play good doubles too. That’s sort of their thing,” Choboy said. “It’s just going to be a fight.”

According to freshman James McGee, the match should be challenging as both teams have a tremendous amount of respect for one another.

“I know that they’re a solid team and it’s going to take a huge effort on our part,” McGee said. “We’re going to compete like animals [and] look forward to playing them.”