After a promising season was cut short last spring due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the NC State men’s tennis team returned to action for the first time in over 300 days. The team opened up its season as part of the ACC Challenge where it faced off against Duke and No. 2 North Carolina. The team generally struggled against Duke but played UNC tough, which came as a nice rebound since UNC handed NC State a tough 4-0 loss in its last home match, 10 months ago.
The first matches of the weekend came against Duke as the teams faced off for nine doubles matches. The Pack struggled in its first set of matches, going 1-4. The lone victory came from senior Tadas Babelis and sophomore Robin Catry, who beat the No. 46-ranked doubles pair 6-3.
The second set of matches went much better for the Wolfpack, going 3-1 over its final four matches of the day. The No. 9-ranked pair of Babelis and junior Yannai Barkai, and the No. 23 ranked pair of fifth-year Alexis Galarneau and senior Robert Turzak each won their first doubles match of the year, 6-4 and 7-5, respectively.
The Pack’s worst day of the weekend came Sunday in singles play against Duke. The Wolfpack went 1-8 in nine singles matches as Barkai clinched the teams lone victory 6-4, 6-3. There wasn’t much to celebrate, but Wolfpack had saved its best performance for the final day of play.
NC State only played three doubles matches on Monday, going 1-2, but was competitive in its losses, falling 6-3 in both. The victory came from junior Rafa Izquierdo Luque and senior Collin Shick in 7-5 fashion.
The Pack’s best slate this weekend came from its singles play against UNC. The No. 7-ranked singles player, Galarneau, lost a tight match to the No. 55-ranked singles player for UNC. After that, the Wolfpack went 4-1 in its final five matches of the weekend, including Izquierdo Luque’s tough three-set win after dropping the first set. He dropped only one game to his opponent in the next two sets for a 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory.
The Pack’s other three singles victories came in more dominant fashion. All three had close first sets before second sets that were won handily to seal the matches.
While the Wolfpack may not have gotten everything it wanted out of this weekend, it fared well against two tough conference opponents. The Pack’s next action will come Friday, Jan. 22 when Alabama comes to Raleigh to take on NC State as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
