Andy Musselman
The women’s tennis team gave previously undefeated No. 34 South Carolina its first loss of the young season on Saturday by a score of 6-1, giving the team its third straight win against a ranked opponent.
N.C. State is just six spots behind the Gamecocks in the latest rankings, so it was somewhat of a surprise to players and coaches at how handily the match was won.
“We’ve improved so much,” freshman Daria Petrovic said. “It was supposed to be a tight match, but deep inside I felt we could win because we improved so much in practice.”
After securing the doubles point, the first three Wolfpack players to finish their singles matches were all winners, thereby clinching the team victory long before half of the field was done playing its respective matches.
“Our team really showed up strong today,” coach Hans Olsen said. “This was a good test. South Carolina is a very strong team, and we knew they were going to challenge us. Our girls met that with such a fierce competitiveness.”
The day’s longest singles match occurred at the 3-seed where freshman Berkeley Brock won a grueling third-set tiebreaker 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (14-12).
Brock’s opponent didn’t help speed matters up by contesting several close calls and disputing the official’s rulings throughout the match.
“We had a ref on our court to confirm or overrule the calls,” Brock said. “I didn’t get overruled once — she questioned most of them. Thank goodness the ref was there or we could have had some serious issues.”
While both players fought it out on court No. 2 of the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Outdoor Tennis Courts, players from both teams sat down on court No. 3. While State’s players encouraged Brock as she rallied back from triple-match point, the Gamecocks’ players were noticeably quiet as their comrade eventually fell short.
It was in those final stages of Brock’s match where Olsen said he could see the team’s unity and competitive drive paying off from last week’s trip to Rice and SMU.
“If you’re playing doubles from one court to the next or if you’re off the court, [it’s] how you’re going to get yourself into the match and make a difference,” Olsen said. ” So the team competing like a team is what we took away from Texas, and it really carried over today.”
The only Pack player to lose on the day was first-semester freshman Catherine Grotz, who fell 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 at the second seed.
Despite Grotz’s loss, State took two other three-set matches as Brock and Julia Roach both won in the third set.
“The fitness is a strength for us. The girls feel an energy when they go into the third set that helps them,” Olsen said. “Everyone felt comfortable going into the third set.”
With the win, Roach moved to 8-0 on the year and is the team’s only player to remain undefeated in singles play.
The team has just one more match, a home contest against Winthrop on Sunday, before opening conference play with Florida State and No. 9 Miami the following weekend.