North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 45 Women's Tennis to Open Home ACC Schedule
3/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
No. 45 NC STATE TO HOST PAIR OF ACC OPPONENTS: NC State, ranked No. 45 by the ITA, will look to win a pair of ACC matches as they host Maryland and Boston College this weekend at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. The Wolfpack will host Maryland on Saturday, March 31 at 12 p.m. before hosting Boston College at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 1.
Maryland comes into the match ranked No. 75 in the nation by the ITA and has two ranked players in singles competition in No. 88 Marianne Baker and No. 101 Eleanor Peters. The Terrapins currently hold an 8-7 overall record and are 1-4 in conference play. Boston College comes into the match at 4-9 overall with an 0-5 record in the conference after competing against four straight top-20 teams.
LIVE RESULTS AVAILABLE FOR ALL HOME MATCHES: Live match results are available on GoPack.com for all home matches. This match will also be available live through ACC Select. Simply copy the following link or go to the Women’s Tennis page and click on Schedule/Results. The Live Results link is listed in the media column on the far right of the schedule.
http://www.gopack.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9200&ATCLID=802191
FREE T-SHIRTS: All fans who attend the matches on Saturday and Sunday will be able to receive a free t-shirt courtesy of the women’s tennis team. With any donation to the “Home of Joy Orphanage” in Costa Rica you will receive a free “Game, Set, Pack” T-shirt as a way of thanking them for their support for women's tennis and for the "Home of Joy Orphanage".
WOLFPACK DOWNS FOUR RANKED FOES: The No. 45 NC State women’s tennis team has won four matches over ranked opponents this season. The Pack defeated No. 69 Rice, 5-2, before downing No. 40 SMU in impressive fashion, 5-2, on a recent road trip. The Pack then handed No. 34 South Carolina their first loss of the season, winning 6-1, on Feb. 24. Last weekend they traveled to Blacksburg and swept No. 69 Virginia Tech, 7-0.
ROACH ENJOYS EARLY SEASON SUCCESS: Julia Roach started off the spring season with a perfect 9-0 record in singles competition. She is currently 12-3 in singles with only three of those matches having to go into a third set. She has competed at No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles for the Wolfpack this season, posting a 6-0 mark at No. 5. All three of her losses have come against teams that are ranked in the top-30. She has also teamed up with freshman Kate Green to post a combined 9-6 record at all three doubles spots.
PACK HOLDS STEADY IN LATEST POLL: NC State moved to No. 45 in the latest ITA rankings to solidify a strong national ranking. All of the Wolfpack’s six losses this season have come at the hands of ranked opponents and have won its ten matches by a combined team score of 60-10.
PETROVIC RANKED IN PRESEASON: Freshman Daria Petrovic earned a preseason spring ranking of No. 43 after her play this fall for the Wolfpack when she posted a 10-4 mark. Petrovic was ranked No. 99 in the first rankings of the spring and has continued that success with a 9-5 record to jump to No. 86 in the latest rankings. She has also combined with Alejandra Guerra to hold a 10-5 mark at No. 1 doubles this spring.
IMPORTANCE OF THE DOUBLE POINT: Throughout the season it has become apparent that the doubles point is very important to the outcome of the match. In all ten of the Wolfpack wins this season the team has captured the doubles point and in five of the six losses they have lost the doubles point. The difference in the 4-3 loss to No. 32 Florida International and No. 18 Wake Forest was literally the doubles point, as NC State narrowly lost the point in both matches, 2-1, before splitting the six singles showdowns.
FOUR WITH TEN OR MORE: Four Wolfpack netters have started the spring with 10 wins or more in singles competition through the first 16 matches. Besides the hot start from Roach with a 12-3 record, Kate Green (11-5), Alejandra Guerra (10-5) and Berkeley Brock (10-6) each have ten or more wins.
Overall (including fall singles), NC State has won 65% of its singles matches with 148 wins to just 79 losses.
FRESHMEN MAKE IMPACT IN SPRING: Out of the 11 members of the 2007 squad, five are freshmen. Those five freshmen - Catherine Grotz, Kate Green, Daria Petrovic, Berkeley Brock, Kristen Bleakley - have combined for 34 of the 74 wins in dual singles action this spring.
FRONT TO BACK: NC State has won 66% of its singles matches and 63% of its doubles matches in the spring and has been solid at the front and back of the lineup in both.
In singles, NC State holds a combined 26-22 mark at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles and is currently 37-11 at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6.
In doubles, the Wolfpack is 11-5 at No. 1 and No. 3. The team is 8-8 at No. 2 doubles.
DOUBLE THE POWER: NC State’s combination of sophomore Alejandra Guerra and freshman Daria Petrovic have solidly defeated most of their opponents this year at No. 1 doubles. They started off the year easily winning over Gardner Webb and UNC-Wilmington before falling at No. 47 Arkansas. They are now 10-5 on the season. On March 9th they defeated the No. 23 doubles team from Florida State. The Wolfpack tandem was ranked No. 15 in the region heading into the spring season for their play.
STRONG TRANSITION: Freshmen Kate Green and Catherine Grotz joined the Wolfpack in the spring and immediately made an impact. Green, who came to NC State from London, England, has started for the Wolfpack at No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 singles for the Wolfpack on the way to an 11-5 record. Grotz, a Seraing, Belgium native, has three wins in singles with a win at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4.
OLSEN INDUCTED INTO BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE HALL OF FAME: NC State women’s tennis head coach Hans Olsen was inducted into the Big South Conference Hall of Fame on Friday, May 19, during a ceremony held in Hilton Head, S.C. Prior to joining the Pack, Olsen played men’s tennis at Charleston Southern from 1989-92 before serving as a coach at his alma mater from 1997-2001. The event marks the second time that Olsen has been enshrined in a hall of fame, having been induced into the Charleston Southern University Athletics Hall of Fame in October of 20.
17 WINS BREAKS SCHOOL RECORD: The Pack’s 17 wins last season broke the program’s all-time record for most victories overall in a single season. The 1998 team recorded 16 bragging rights, five in ACC play. NC State surpassed that mark with a 4-3 win over William & Mary in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
PACK GRABS FIRST NCAA TOURNAMENT WIN IN SCHOOL HISTORY: With No. 37 NC State and No. 24 William & Mary tied at 3-3 in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, senior Nandita Chandrasekar found herself in the middle of a dogfight for a ticket to the second round. After dropping the first set to Klaudyna Kasztelaniec, Chandrasekar stormed back to collect the final two frames and hand the Wolfpack women’s tennis program its first ever NCAA Tournament win, 4-3.
EIGHT WINS OVER RANKED SQUADS IN 2006: NC State downed eight nationally ranked teams last season; No. 25 Florida International, No. 64 Marshall, No. 64 Florida State, No. 33 Virginia, No. 66 Virginia Tech, No. 65 Boston College, No. 29 Maryland and No. 24 William & Mary.
