The NC State men’s tennis team lost a closely contested match 4-2 against No. 2 Wake Forest Wednesday afternoon at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
The Wolfpack (11-7, 2-2 ACC) has had a difficult schedule as of late, facing three teams in its last four matches ranked in the top three. Wake Forest (19-3, 5-0 ACC), who was the highest-ranked team the Pack has faced this season, came into Wednesday’s contest on a three-game winning streak and sitting atop the ACC standings.
The Wolfpack started the match off on the right foot by securing the initial doubles point after wins from junior Alexis Galarenau and redshirt senior Michael Ogden 6-3 as well as seniors Igor and Ivan Saveljic 7-6 (3).
In singles, No. 18 Galarenau fell in straight sets (7-5, 6-1) to Wake Forest’s No. 50 Borna Gojo to tie up the team score. However, freshman Yannai Barkai won the next singles set for the Wolfpack in close sets (6-4, 7-5) to push them back into the lead.
Wake Forest narrowly squeezed back ahead after two evenly matched sets by Igor Saveljic (6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3)) and sophomore Tadas Babelis (6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4) that each went into an extra set and tiebreakers.
The Deacons closed out the match as Siddhant Banthia defeated senior Georgiy Malyshev in straight sets (6-2, 6-2).
The Wolfpack managed to hang with the high-ranked Deacons as five of the sets went into extra games. The Pack showed its resolve to compete with such a strong team and this bodes well for the future of its season.
The Wolfpack is back in action Friday as it heads north to take on Boston College at 4 p.m.
