The No. 3 NC State women’s tennis team lost a home match Sunday afternoon, falling at the hands of No. 13 Virginia 4-3 at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
The Wolfpack (16-3, 3-1 ACC) lost for the first time since a Feb. 8 match against then-No. 2 North Carolina as it dropped the doubles point and the final singles match to the Cavaliers (9-4, 3-2 ACC), who had lost two of three team matches entering Sunday.
The No. 2 doubles duo of sophomore Alana Smith and senior Anna Rogers handily won its doubles match 6-2, giving the Pack an initial leg up for the doubles point. But Virginia took the last two doubles matches and the point, with the No. 13 duo of senior Adriana Reami and junior Jaeda Daniel losing 6-3, and the duo of freshman Lana Mavor and junior Liz Norman also falling 6-3.
After No. 32 Rogers evened things up at 1-1 with a (6-4, 6-2) win over No. 35 Rosie Johanson, the Wolfpack dropped its next two singles matches as junior Lexi Keberle (1-6, 3-6) and Mavor (0-6, 2-6) each fell in straight sets.
Staring at a 3-1 deficit, NC State fought back to tie things up, with Reami (7-5, 6-2) and Daniel (6-4, 6-4) each winning their matches to even the score at 3-3 and set up a winner-take-all scenario with Smith.
Smith dropped the first set 4-6, but after trailing 2-5 in the second set stormed back for a 7-5 win, meaning the third set would decide the match. Smith surged out to a 2-0 lead in the set but ran out of gas, dropping the next six sets and falling in three (4-6, 7-5, 2-6) as the Wolfpack narrowly lost the match.
The loss was NC State’s first to a team ranked outside the top 10, but still keeps the Pack’s streak alive of its only losses being to ranked teams. After a quick turnaround from a 5-2 win over No. 12 Wake Forest on Friday, the Pack simply ran out of steam, suffering its first home loss of the season.
NC State will return to action on Friday, March 6 when it takes on Virginia Tech on the road in Blacksburg, Virginia. The match will be just the Wolfpack’s second non-ranked match in the last five matches and will begin at 2:30 p.m.
Lexi Keberle, a junior studying sports management, returns the volly in her singles match on March, 1 2020 against Virginia at J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. Keberle achieved a 25-11 record in singles.
