Senior Christian Welte and redshirt freshman Julian Sullivan upset the No. 1 nationally ranked doubles, Cory Parr and Steven Forman, 8-5. Despite the huge win in doubles, the Pack dropped its match Tuesday to No. 28 Wake Forest, 2-5. This marked the third loss for the Pack in a row, falling to 9-10 (3-4 ACC) as the Demon Deacons advanced to 15-6 (5-1 ACC).
Beating the No.1 ranked team was quite an accomplishment, according to Welte.
“I knew if we just made the basic shots we could win,” Welte said. “Basically, we just tried to make a lot of first serves and make them play. There’s no one in college tennis that’s unbeatable.”
According to coach Jon Choboy, he was pleased with the doubles performance overall, especially from Welte and Sullivan, who clinched the doubles point victory.
“It was solid,” Choboy said. “Christian and Julian have been in the position to win every match this season. They played a good team, a No. 1 team, and they have that ranking for a reason.”
Winning the doubles point gave State momentum going into the singles matches, but it didn’t hold up, according to sophomore David Chermak.
“We just didn’t come together today,” Chermak said. “My loss on Sunday against Georga Tech is what really motivated me to win today.”
Chermak, playing No. 6 singles, walked off the court with the lone singles win, beating Wake Forest’s Andrew Brasseaux, 6-3, 7-5.
“It feels good to finally get a win,” Chermak said. “I had to fight for my spot in the lineup for the past few weeks. I lost seven straight at the beginning of the season and I’m just now finding my forehand again.”
Senior Jay Weinacker now holds his highest career individual ranking at No. 36 nationally. He also holds the school record with 103 career victories. Playing number one singles, Weinacker lost his first conference match of the season to No. 21 Cory Parr, who remains undefeated in ACC play.
The overall match came down to Welte and Derek Stephens’ singles courts, yet both seniors lost their firsts set and couldn’t bring it back. Wake Forest pulled out the win on five of the six singles courts, Chermak being the only Wolfpack victory.
According to Choboy, the team is lacking some experience and motivation.
“Certain spots have some inexperience,” Choboy said. “That’s going to come into play and we just need to learn and grow from it. We need to continue to get more help from the upper classmen and they need to continue to perform and even raise the level a little bit.”
Only four matches remain until the ACC tournament, as the Pack prepares itself for No. 31 Miami at home Friday.
“We need different guys stepping up,” Welte said. “We need to get a complete team effort on the same day. We’re just trying to finish strong.”
Moving on from these losses, Choboy said the team will grow and learn.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position and we’ve got to play it out,” Choboy said. “[In Welte’s doubles match] in the last game he was serving and he won each and every serve. That’s how you win — you play the basic stuff well. And that’s the stuff it’s going to take to win in singles as well.”
