While the team seasons for both the NC State men’s and women’s tennis teams have come to an end in the past couple of weeks, the individual seasons of three members of the Pack will continue this week in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
For the Wolfpack women, junior Anna Rogers will compete in the singles tournament as well as the women’s doubles tournament, where she will play alongside freshman Alana Smith. For the Pack men, junior Alexis Galarneau will hit the court for singles.
The NC State women made a run to the Sweet 16 round of the team tournament, thanks in major part to Rogers, who will look to continue building on a historic season for the program. Rogers is seeded for the women’s singles tournament, listed as a 9-16 seed, and will take on Mississippi State’s Emma Antonaki in the first round. While the Wolfpack did play Mississippi State this season, Rogers and Antonaki didn’t faceoff, as Antonaki defeated Wolfpack junior Adriana Reami.
If Rogers tops Antonaki, she will face the winner of Pepperdine’s Jessica Failla and Duke’s Kelly Chen in the second round. The third round of the tournament would potentially bring a seeded battle for Rogers, who would line up to face Vanderbilt’s Fernanda Contreras, seeded sixth. Rogers has a strong chance at making a deep run in the singles tournament, with some favorable matchups.
In the women’s doubles tournament, Rogers and Smith are seeded 5-8 and will face California’s Hana Mraz and Julia Rosenqvist in the opening round. The winners of a match between doubles teams from Wichita State and Oklahoma State would await Rogers and Smith in the second round before a potential third-round tilt with the tournament’s four seed, Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Mia Horvit from South Carolina.
On the men’s side, the tournament draw is much less favorable for Galarneau. The Pack junior’s first-round matchup will come against the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Nuno Borges of Mississippi State. If Galarneau can somehow pull of an upset in his opening match, he would be in a good position to make a run.
The men’s and women’s singles tournaments will kick off Monday, with Galarneau playing at 11 a.m. and Rogers playing at 1:30 p.m. The women’s doubles will kick off Tuesday for Rogers and Smith.
