The No. 32 N.C. State men’s tennis team closed the regular season in an exciting fashion Saturday evening, bouncing back from a slow start in singles play to upset No. 25 Wake Forest 4-3 in Winston-Salem.
With the win, State improved its record to 16-8 and 5-6 in the ACC, securing the No. 6 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament.
The match, delayed for about an hour at the outset by rain, began with the Wolfpack sweeping all three doubles matches to go up 1-0. The No. 2 team of senior Sean Weber and freshman Nick Horton, ranked No. 49 in the nation, rolled over the Demon Deacons’ sophomore Romain Bogaerts and freshman Maksim Kan, 8-2.
The other two matches both went into tiebreakers, as the 25th-ranked team of junior Robbie Mudge and freshman Ian Dempster edged Wake’s 57th-ranked sophomore duo of Jon Ho and Pedro Dumont 8-7(3) at No. 1, while junior Austin Powell and sophomore Simon Norenius outlasted sophomore Anthony Delcore and senior Adam Lee by the same score at No. 3.
“We’ve had some good wins to finish off,” Wolfpack head coach Jon Choboy said. “Any time you go into a competitive environment, the more you’re experiencing that the better it prepares you for what’s next.”
The Deacs quickly seized the momentum in singles play as Dumont made quick work of Dempster at No. 5, 6-0, 6-2. Wake forged further ahead shortly after when freshman Aws Laaribi knocked off Weber in two tight sets 7-5, 7-5.
Norenius gave the Wolfpack its first singles victory of the match on Court No. 3, coming back from a set down to defeat Lee 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Horton followed him off the court, giving State the lead for good with a tight three-set victory of his own, winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 over Kan at the No. 4 position.
Powell, who the Wolfpack has turned to as a leader all season long, provided the win his team needed to clinch the victory. The 51st-ranked player in the nation recovered from losing the second set to defeat Ho 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 at No. 2, giving the Pack an insurmountable 4-2 lead. It was Powell’s 23rd singles victory of the season, a team high.
Wake salvaged a three-set victory at No. 1 as Bogaerts, the No. 35 player in the nation, defeated Mudge 6-1, 6-7(6), 7-5 to make the final score 4-3. It was State’s fifth win in the past six matches following an 0-5 start in conference play, with the lone loss coming on the road at defending national champion Virginia.
The win also improved the Wolfpack’s chances of qualifying for its third consecutive NCAA Tournament.
“We addressed the fact that we needed to get tougher,” Choboy said. “We had some tough 4-3 losses. Now we’re closing it out at points when, a few matches ago, we weren’t able to close it out.”
The Wolfpack returns to action Thursday against 11th-seeded Georgia Tech at 3 p.m. in the ACC Tournament at the Cary Tennis Park. Earlier this season, the Pack defeated the Yellow Jackets 6-1 in Raleigh. The winner of that match will face third-seeded UNC-Chapel Hill Friday afternoon.
“[Georgia Tech is] going to come at us even harder this time,” Choboy said. “We have to prepare our players to understand that they have to get out there and get ready to work. We know that every match from here on out is one-and-done, so we really have to buckle down and play our best tennis.”
