The NC State women’s tennis team visited Florida this weekend to participate in the ITA Kick-Off weekend. The Pack started off strong by handling Mississippi State on Saturday 4-1 and improving to 3-0 on the season. The team followed up Saturday’s victory with an upset win over No. 11 Florida on Monday, pushing its record to 4-0 and earning it a top-25 victory.
Against Mississippi State, NC State won the doubles point thanks to victories by junior Anna Rogers and freshman Alana Smith (6-1) and senior Bianca Moldovan and sophomore Liz Norman (6-3).
“I thought doubles were key today,” head coach Simon Earnshaw told NC State Athletics. “We made a good start at no. 1, but it was extremely tight at no. 2 and no. 3 early. Bianca and Liz managed to get a break back down 2-3, and this seemed to propel us forward from that point.”
In singles, senior Amanda Rebol and Norman stood out against Mississippi State. They each won their matches while only dropping a single game, both winning 6-1, 6-0. Junior Adriana Reami lost to No. 55 Emma Antonaki, but that was the lone victory that Mississippi State obtained as Rogers took down No. 56 Magda Adaloglou (6-1, 6-4) to secure the win for the Pack.
“We managed to ride that momentum into singles and then up and down the lineup we did a great job of maintaining the advantage and closing the matches out.” Earnshaw said. “Overall, an excellent win for us against an excellent SEC program and something we are going to work to build on.”
Against Florida, after the event was postponed until Monday due to weather, NC State again dominated the doubles matches, securing the doubles point before the final match concluded. Smith and Rogers won their contest 6-4 while Reami and Rebol won 6-2.
In singles, Florida won two matches early against Reami and Moldovan. Rebol won a close first set against Sydney Berlin and swept the second one to earn a point for the Wolfpack. Norman earned the Pack another point by virtue of a lockdown third set versus Tsveta Dimitrova.
Smith lost a close match where both sets were decided via a tiebreaker, bringing the score to 3-3. In what became the deciding match, Rogers won a tightly contested three-set battle against Kessler McCartney (7-6, 5-7, 6-4). NC State clinched the final point and won the contest 4-3.
“This feeling is unbelievable. Every single one of us fought out there today and that’s so special.” Rogers told NC State Athletics. “When all other courts finished and I realized I was the deciding match, I tried to keep cool and not show any emotion. I focused on every point and my team was there with me every step of the way.”
With the win, NC State will move on to the ITA D1 National Team Indoor Championship for the first time in school history.
