N.C. State picked up five doubles victories on Thursday and two of its singles contestants later reached the quarterfinals held Sunday at the ITA Regional Indoors in Chapel Hill. The competition was the Wolfpack’s fourth of the fall after it participated in the UVA Invitational, ITA All-American, and USTA National Tennis Center Invitational.
One player who made it through to the singles quarterfinals before falling to Zoe DeBruycker of UNC was junior Sandhya Nagaraj. Nagaraj advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Andressa Garcia of Winthrop 6-0, 6-1 and Nelly Ciolkowski of Clemson 6-1, 6-1. She said fatigue was not a factor over the weekend, even after she had competed across the country in a Pacific Palisades, CA tournament earlier in the month.
“We played for about seven days in California and we had about three or four days to get back,” Nagaraj said. “We had enough time to rest and move on”.
Senior Sanaa Bhambri also advanced to quarterfinal action, but fell Sunday to Duke’s fifth-seed Nadine Fahoum.
Nagaraj hasn’t been the only one on her team with a hectic travel schedule. Additional tournaments in Charlottesville, Va. and New York have made for a chaotic and challenging beginning to the season. Although competition including conference foes Duke, Wake Forest and UNC provided difficulties for State this weekend, Nagaraj said the team is determined to improve and compete for the ACC Championship.
“All we have to do is put a few matches together when we’re playing the team events,” Nagaraj said. “All of us had a pretty decent tournament, and at the next tournament at Wake Forest, it should be a goal for us to take another step ahead.”
In his 10th season at State, Hans Olsen knows what he wants out of each of his squads, and this season will be no different. The winningest coach in Wolfpack women’s tennis history made it clear he expects his team to make improvements when it heads to Winston-Salem next weekend.
“What we’re trying to improve upon is to have more of a fight,” Olson said. “We’ve had some really good tournaments this fall and this one I feel like we left some competing on the court in games where my team just needed to fight harder.”
Although Nagaraj and Bhambri have gotten off to strong starts to the season with an A doubles victory at the UVA Invitational and a strong showing in California, Olsen said he wants to continue to push the duo and their teammates toward even better results.
“To be honest, I think they could be better,” Olsen said. “They had some good wins where they had to fight hard in some tough situations, but I really think they can perform at a higher level.”
With the team’s two fall leaders poised for spring play, Olsen said he has no doubts about the potential of his squad.
“I believe in this team,” Olsen said. “They’re definitely capable of putting themselves in the hunt for the ACC Championship and that’s exciting.”
The Wake Forest Invitational will begin Friday, Nov. 5 and conclude Sunday, Nov. 7 in Winston-Salem.
