Due to adverse weather Wednesday, the women’s tennis match against the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils was played indoors at the J.W. Isehour Tennis Center.
The Pack entered the match after a double header last weekend, defeating Boston College 5-2 Saturday and dropping to Maryland 3-4 Sunday. Duke beat State 6-1 as the Pack fell to 4-11 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. Junior Berkeley Brock, who was responsible for the Pack’s only win, took down No. 23 Ellah Nze in a third set tiebreaker.
According to sophomore Lenka Hojckova, the team benefits from the difficult competition that comes with being in the ACC.
“The ACC has by far the hardest competition for women’s tennis in the nation,” Hojckova said. “We are really happy to play against top teams because it’s great experience.”
The start of the match proved to be difficult for the Pack, losing all doubles matches resulting in the loss of the doubles point. The Blue Devil’s momentum continued into the singles courts, with Duke winning all six of the first sets.
“Girls had the opportunity to win the doubles at both one and two,” coach Hans Olsen said. “We were up 6-5 and had a couple of unforced errors that let Duke take the lead. But overall the quality of the tennis was good.”
Playing number one singles, No. 99 Hojckova lost to No. 31 freshman Mallory Cecil 6-1, 6-3.
“We played a really good team Wednesday,” Lenka said. “I just tried to fight back, but I have to give [Cecil] credit, she was really good.”
Brock fought from behind to take down No. 23 Nze at the number two singles seed. Losing the first set 6-4, Brock came back to win the second set 6-4, (10-8). Since Duke had already won the match, a tie breaker was played in place of a third set.
“Whenever I play people who are ranked high or who are supposed to beat me, it’s more like I have nothing to lose,” Brock said. “I just go out there to play and have fun and not worry so much about what the score is. You kind of forget about the ranking itself.”
On the number three singles court, Daria Petrovic retired her match early, 0-6, 0-1, due to an injury to her leg.
The Wolfpack will return again to play its final two home matches March 28 against Clemson at noon and Georga Tech March 29 at 1 p.m.
“The Clemson match is probably going to be similar competition to Duke,” Hojckova said. “We just have to fight for everything. Every team is beatable, and Wednesday, Duke was better, but we never know what’s going to happen against Clemson.”
