North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Women's Tennis Senior Trio Leads Pack
4/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. By team rule, there was no sleeping on the van, which made trips in the Interstate-40 traffic through heart of the Research Triangle Park particularly difficult.
That was in the not-so-distant past, when the NC State women’s tennis team had to travel to Chapel Hill for daily winter practices because it had no indoor tennis facilities of its own.
“I remember those trips being very exhausting,” said senior Agustina Arechavaleta. “Each time we practiced, it would be several hours long going there, practicing and coming home.”
Added fellow senior Allison Barry: “It was a little hard because we wanted to get as much practice on the courts done as we could every day, and we just didn’t have the facilities. What having the facility means now is a lot more consistency now and a lot more practice time, which benefits everyone on our team.”
Those were the hard days, when this year’s senior class of Arechavaleta, a native of Montevideo, Uruguay, and twins Allison and Lauren Barry of Raleigh, were freshmen and sophomores. Now, since the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Complex opened last spring, the senior trio and their teammates have a comparative life of luxury.
However, that’s not the Wolfpack’s only reason for success in recent years. Last season, the Wolfpack won its first-round match in the ACC Tennis Tournament, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tennis Tournament for the first time in school history, recorded a school-record 17 dual-match victories and finished ranked No. 31 in the nation.
Heading into the post-season this year the ACC Women’s Tennis Tournament begins Thursday at the Cary Tennis Park the Wolfpack is coming off perhaps the biggest win in team history, a 5-2 decision over No. 18 Duke last weekend in Raleigh. It was the highest ranked team NC State has ever beaten and the first time the Pack has ever beaten the Blue Devils, a perennial power in the ACC.
The ninth-seeded Wolfpack (13-9 overall, 4-7 ACC) women begin the post season Thursday at 9 a.m., when they take on eighth-seeded Virginia (10-10, 4-7) at the Cary Tennis Park. In March, the Cavaliers took a 4-3 decision in Charlottesville, Va., to hand the Wolfpack its fourth consecutive ACC loss, but NC State coach Hans Olsen’s team won four of its final seven league matches in the regular season.
The three seniors have made valuable contributions to the team, even if their leadership isn't always shown in the boxscores or statistics, Olsen said.
“They have been excellent leaders all year long,” Olsen said. “They have done the little things that help our team and to help our players.”
Sometimes, that means just being there to participate in practice. Sometimes, that has meant getting up early for a week to help get a new teammate familiar with NC State’s sprawling campus. In the last two years, there have been three accomplished foreign players who have joined the squad in January Shona Lee, Kate Green and Catherine Grotz and needed a quick tutorial in getting around campus and getting adjusted to American life.
Considering Lee who spent only one semester at State before joining the World Tennis Association Tour had a 13-9 record and was an All-ACC selection last year and Green and Grotz have combined to win 35 singles and doubles matches this season, that’s a significant contribution to the team’s success.
For the Barrys and Arechavaleta, the post-season tournaments will mark the end of their collegiate tennis careers. But all three are set to graduate in May. Lauren Barry, who will get a degree in Communications and Public Relations, has already accepted a job at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Allison Barry is still searching for a job using her Communications and Public Relations degree in either Florida or New York. And Arechavaleta plans to return to her native Uruguay, where she can use her double degrees in Business/Finance and Accounting.
They are proud of the strides that the Wolfpack has made during their time on the team and believe they leave a legacy that has helped solidified the foundation of Olsen’s program.
“The biggest difference on the court with the teammates we have had over the years is that coach had a vision of getting people on the court that blend well with each other,” said Lauren Barry. “We have a strong group of players and you can tell a big difference between now and our freshman year.
“Because we are so close, it brings us momentum in every match. It feels more like a collective effort than just an individual sport.”
And that means the team’s success is something everyone shares.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
