RALEIGH – The No. 20 NC State men’s tennis team took down No. 19 Middle Tennessee, 4-3, on Saturday, advancing to the Round of 16 for the first time since 2007 and the second time in program history.
STRAIGHT FROM THE PACK: HEAD COACH KYLE SPENCER
Hear from Head Coach @NCSt10sCoachKyl following today’s win over No. 19 MTSU (and yes, the team dumped the water cooler on him after the match) ⬇️#GoPack | #PackRisin pic.twitter.com/9OJquF9rBv
— NC State Men’s Tennis 🐺🎾 (@PackMensTennis) May 8, 2022
DOUBLES RECAP
From the start, competition was tight across all three courts. No. 54 Martins Rocens and Fons Van Sambeek initially found themselves down by two games and won three straight to go up 3-2, but ultimately No. 70 Oskar Poulsen and Francisco Rocha came away with the 6-4 win.
Collin Shick and Braden Shick traded games with Stepan Holis and Christopher Edge in a match that culminated in a back-and-forth tiebreaker. The Wolfpack duo was down 4-6 in the tiebreaker but took four consecutive points to take the match 7-6 (6).
Robin Catry and Yannai Barkai got up 4-2 early in their match, but the competition with Pavel Motl and Stijn Slump also went to a tiebreaker. Catry and Barkai gutted out the 7-6 (6) win to clinch the doubles point for the Pack.
SINGLES RECAP
Similar to doubles action, singles proved to be a battle from the top of the lineup to the bottom.
Middle Tennessee got the first two singles victories, the first coming for No. 100 Rocha by way of a 6-2, 7-6 (0) win over Catry.
Minutes later, Edge was able to put the Blue Raiders up in the team score with a 6-4, 7-6 (3) defeat of Luca Staeheli.
No. 98 Rafa Izquierdo Luque provided a spark for the Pack on court one, gutting out a straight-set win in which both sets went into tiebreakers. Izquierdo Luque secured the victory over 65th-ranked Slump 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4).
It wasn’t long before Rocens gave the Pack the edge in the team score with a three-setter on court four. The Riga, Latvia, native took down Holis 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.
NC State took both first sets on courts five and six, including a tiebreaker win by Damien Salvestre. Middle Tennessee’s Poulsen was able to force a third set in that match and ultimately came away with the 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 victory.
Braden Shick took his first set against, but the Blue Raiders were able to push the second…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at NC State University Athletics…