Coming off of a tight 4-3 win over Penn State in State College, Pa., this weekend, the No. 40 N.C. State men’s tennis team faced its second-straight Big Ten opponent and defeated No. 22 Indiana in its home opener Monday afternoon at the Andy Andrews Indoor Tennis Stadium. The win brings State’s record to 2-0 in the young season.
“We told them that every match is going to be like this,” head coach Jon Choboy said. “It’s really going to come down to the wire.”
The Hoosiers claimed the doubles point to begin the match, winning two of three rubbers. Their No. 2 team of Daniel Bednarczyk and Sam Monette made quick work of State sophomores Austin Powell and Beck Bond in an 8-0 romp. The Wolfpack rebounded shortly thereafter, as the No. 3 team of sophomore Robbie Mudge and freshman Thomas Weigel topped Indiana’s Dimitrije Tasic and Chris Essick by a score of 8-5.
Indiana took the early advantage at No. 1 as Josh MacTaggart and Isade Juneau defeated senior Dave Thomson and junior Sean Weber to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 lead. Indiana broke Weber’s serve in the first game of the rubber and made it stand up in an 8-6 victory heading into singles play.
Indiana doubled its lead as Juneau earned a three-set win over Thomson at No. 2, winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. The Wolfpack cut into that margin when No. 3 Mudge topped Monette in three sets. Powell followed by evening the score for the Pack at the top spot, coming back to knock off MacTaggart after dropping the first set 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
“I was kind of struggling, so I decided to work his forehand more in the second,” Powell said. “Then in the third set I took control. Staying out there and keeping on grinding was the difference.”
No. 4 Weigel gave State a 3-2 lead, recovering from a lost first set of his own to defeat Tasic 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-5. The freshman from Germany held a 5-2 lead in the final set and twice served for the match, failing to capitalize each time as Tasic tied it up. But Weigel broke Tasic once again and this time served it out, punctuating the win with an overhead smash.
Indiana evened things up by virtue of a 6-2, 6-4 win by Bednarczyk over Weber at No. 5. That brought it down to the No. 6 match between State freshman Simon Norenius and Indiana’s Elliott Yee. Though it was the decisive match of the day, it was the least competitive as Norenius rolled over Yee, 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the victory for the Pack.
“They’ve really improved over the past four months,” Choboy said of his freshmen. “They’re great players to begin with, and it’s good that they’re in this situation.”
The Wolfpack will travel to Oxford, Miss., from Jan. 25-28 to compete in the ITA Kick-Off event, hosted by the University of Mississippi. Also competing in Oxford are Columbia, Louisville and the home standing Rebels. The winner of the four-team event will advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships.
“It’s a big tournament,” Powell said. “There are a lot of good teams in it, we just have to keep fighting hard and executing.”
State’s next home match is Feb. 1 against Northwestern.
