No. 20 N.C. State (16-5, 1-3 ACC) will play two matches this weekend as it travels to Boston College (4-12, 0-5 ACC) at 6 p.m. on Friday and then goes to No. 51 Maryland (10-4, 2-3 ACC) to play at noon on Sunday.
State looks to rebound from a 5-2 loss to No. 21 Duke on Wednesday. That match was already the third conference loss for a Wolfpack team that currently holds the highest ranking in school history. Sophomore Jay Weinacker said the Duke loss was unexpected.
“A couple of us got beat pretty badly against Duke,” Weinacker said. “They surprised us and played us pretty well. Maybe we weren’t ready.”
Even with the bad loss earlier this week, Weinacker said he expects the team to come out much stronger this weekend and avoid the same mistakes from the Duke match.
“We need to compete a little bit harder and work on some individual performances,” Weinacker said. “I think we will be all right. We will be ready this weekend.”
Coach Jon Choboy said the team needs to improve on several things it showed on Wednesday to pick up the wins this weekend.
“Hopefully we will come out a lot better than we did against Duke and get ourselves on track,” Choboy said. “We need to have a little bit more intensity and play with more urgency than we did on Wednesday. We need to come after them a little bit more. I think if we do that, we will be fine.”
Boston College, the Pack’s opponent on Friday, has struggled during its time in the ACC. A year after going winless in conference play, the Eagles stand at 0-5 in the ACC. Weinacker said despite its struggles, it is important that the Wolfpack takes Boston College seriously.
“We are definitely expecting to win,” Weinacker said. “Boston College is one of the weaker teams in conference. Last year they didn’t get a win in conference and they don’t have one this year. Even with that, we still have to come out and have the same mentality as we would against any team.”
Maryland has had more success this season. Weinacker said the Terps are significantly improved from last year when the Pack beat them 6-1 in Raleigh.
“Maryland may be a little tougher than Boston College,” Weinacker said. “It’s obviously an important match like all the ACC matches. They are a lower-ranked team than us, and we feel like we should win.
“We will feel pretty good going in. Hopefully we can get a win against Boston College and have a little bit of confidence going into Maryland. I think they are definitely a better team than last year, so we will be looking for a tougher match this year.”
Choboy pointed out the team will be playing quality opponents for the rest of the season and that Maryland is simply one of many ranked teams on the schedule.
“They are pretty solid,” Choboy said. “We are aware of it and we’ve been playing ranked teams for weeks now. Pretty much from here on out for the rest of the year it’s expected that that is the type of team we are going against. We want to go in there and match and exceed their intensity and just take the match to them.”
As for what he wants from his team during this very important weekend, Choboy was very clear.
“I expect everybody that we have in the lineup to step up and play well,” he said.
