Today will start the first of two weekend ACC matches in the state of Virginia as the women’s tennis team heads into Charlottesville for a date with the No. 63 Cavaliers.
The second such matchup will be on Sunday, when the team plays at No. 69 Virginia Tech.
After Wednesday’s win against Charlotte, the team has no more out-of-conference teams scheduled, and since N.C. State is 0-3 in conference play, this weekend’s games are pivotal to the team.
“Every time when you play what we play in the ACC, it’s going to be a battle,” coach Hans Olsen said. “We’re planning on a really tough match tomorrow, but I think we’ll be a little bit more prepared going into this week.”
Each of the conference losses has come to teams ranked higher than the Pack, but this week’s opponents are both ranked well below the Pack’s No. 44 spot.
“I liked our chances in [past] matches, and I like our chances [today],” Olsen said. “The team is going to be very ready to get after it, and it’s going to come down to who can put the pressure on their opponents for the important points.”
The lineups for this weekend are still undetermined, and Olsen said he has a luxury of picking from a strong field of players.
“We haven’t made any decisions on that yet,” Olsen said. “We’ve got a team that has a lot of good players and gives us a lot of choices. It’s one of our strengths.”
Last time out, No. 86 Daria Petrovic, a freshman, suffered her third loss to an unranked opponent of the year and was the only singles player to lose her match.
That match against Charlotte, she said, will be tucked far away in the back of her mind when she goes to play again this weekend.
“I’m trying to forget about that match — it was just a bad day. … I’m trying to start playing like how I was playing two weeks ago,” Petrovic said.
At 9-5 overall, Olsen said his team is still on track for where it wants to be this season — returning to the NCAA Regionals.
“It’s hard to predict when you have such a young team; we have five freshmen,” Olsen said. “Some days it’s better than we expected, and some days it’s not as much as we expect.”
All three of the in-conference losses have come on the road, and following the weekend’s Virginia trip, the Wolfpack will play at home for the remainder of the year — six matches in total.
“It’s kind of sad because I like traveling with the team. We get to know each other a lot and have fun,” Petrovic said. “It’s kind of a relief to be done with it. But at the same time it’s almost like a challenge to play away from home.”
The culmination of the weekend will be the halfway mark for the team’s ACC schedule, so this weekend’s performance will be key to attaining the team’s goals for the season.
“I think we’re in a good spot right now. We’ve won against some tough teams, and we’ve done it at home, and we’ve done it on the road,” Olsen said. “Each week this young team is gaining more and more experience.”
