The No. 8 seed N.C. State women’s tennis team will play the No. 9 seed Wake Forest today at the Cary Tennis Park for the first round of the ACC tournament at 9 a.m. The Pack has been riding a hot streak lately with wins in its past three games and has no plan of slowing down.
“All season we have planned on peaking at this time of the year, each week being a step towards that from the beginning of the season to just this last week has come from the right focus, looking at the things we are doing well, and really emphasizing those things,” said Coach Hans Olsen. “I would say most of it right now is related to their mindset, having the right thoughts going through their head and really having the confidence that can control those thoughts when they need to.”
In past years Wake Forest has proved to be a tough competitor and challenge for the team, but State is only using that as fuel for their fire.
“They are a very scrappy team, and I am not expecting it to be an easy match by any means, but I definitely think that we can win,” said senior Berkeley Brock. “We beat them in the regular season this year, and it was a hard-fought match, but we lost to them pretty badly last year, so they are always a good team.”
In preparation, the team has been working really hard to concentrate on what they need to do and to remain focused.
Brock says that the hard work and focus she exhibits during practice has transferred over to her matches, and a late winning streak at the end of the season shows just how much it has all begun to pay off. Finishing the season with a personal four games straight winning streak, Brock’s 47 career spring wins now have her tied for fourth all-time at N.C. State.
“I am sure Wake Forest is going to be ready to play, and I think we are focused on taking our next step from our matches last weekend and taking another next step forward going into the tournament with Wake Forest,” Olsen said. “We are going to try to bring pressure on all three doubles courts and just try to be fearless on all six singles courts.”
Sophomore Sandhya Nagaraj and her teammates have been working hard in practice on the skills they need so that they can help bring home the win today. She said that personally she has been working on her serves, form and being aggressive at the net without worrying about the result.
“We have a really good team this year,” said Nagaraj. “As a team we all have to come together. We have been working on putting everything together in one match so that we can pull off that big win.”
Nagaraj has remained at the No. 1 singles spot all season, going 12-9. Junior Lenka Hojckova and Brock have also shone, each finishing their season 11-9.
“We have got several people that are playing well,” Olsen said. “The team as a whole has been on a roll, finding a way to win in the last couple of weeks. Berkeley has really been playing well, very sharp. Chloe Smith has been very sharp lately, Tana Illova through the weekend was looking very good, really picking up some confidence, and Lenka and Tana in doubles have been a very dominant team.”
Ready and excited, the team plans to bring all its energy onto the court and let it shine through during their game.
“We have a lot of energy,” Brock said. “People get really pumped up on the court and everyone is very excited for the ACC tournament to start so we are going to be bringing a lot of energy.”
