North Carolina State University Athletics
Men's Tennis Hooks 4-3 Victory over Texas
5/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
ATHENS, Ga. And then there were eight.
The NC State men’s tennis team continued its impressive run through the NCAA Tournament with a tightly-contested 4-3 victory over No. 11 University of Texas on Thursday morning at the Dan MaGill Tennis Complex.
NC State (23-9) defeated its 13th ranked opponent this year and will now play in the quarterfinals for the first time in school history where they will face No. 3-seeded Baylor on Saturday at 9 am. Baylor shut out Alabama in its Round of 16 match.
“This win just adds to the momentum we built up last week in Chapel Hill,” said NC State head coach Jon Choboy. “It was great to have our loyal Wolfpack fans come out today and root us on. We are very excited to advance to play on Saturday.”
The decision came down to court four, where NC State’s James McGee clinched the win with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Milan Mihailovic.
“This is really incredible, what we’ve been able to do in the past two weeks,” explained an overjoyed McGee. “It’s like a fairy tail, to beat Carolina and now Texas. It’s a great feeling to have won the clinching match and advance to the next round.”
NC State had to come back to win the match after dropping a tight doubles point. The Wolfpack rallied to win first sets on four singles courts. In all, the Pack dominated three singles matches with rather comfortable straight-set wins.
At No. 2 singles, William Noblitt began the rally with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Miguel Reyes Varela. Minutes later at No. 3 singles, State’s Jay Weinacker took care of Luis Diaz Barriga 6-1, 6-2 to give the Pack a 2-1 lead. The loss snapped Barriga’s singles match winning streak at 21.
The lead increased to 3-1 in favor of NC State after Andre Iriarte downed Jonah Kane-West 6-0, 6-3 at No. 6 singles. No. 41-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky defeated Nick Cavaday 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and Josh Zavala rallied to square the match at 3-3 with a 6-7, 6-1, 6-0 win over Christian Welte at No. 5 singles.
“Anytime in a match this big, when you lose the doubles point, you’re at a big disadvantage,” said NC State head coach Jon Choboy. “It’s a huge credit to our team that we were able to overcome it and play so well in the singles matches.”
The doubles match on court one was a battle of nationally ranked duos. Texas’ tag team of Kutrovsky and Zavala, the 30th-ranked doubles team, downed the Pack’s No. 13 ranked pair of Cavaday and Noblitt, 8-4.
McGee and Weinacker evened the doubles point up with an impressive 8-5 victory over Mihailovic and Varela, but the doubles point went the way of Texas as Bernhard Deussner and Barriga defeated David Rozek and Welte, 8-6.
Choboy later added, “We’ll do the best we can to gather as much information about Baylor. At this stage, everybody’s good. All we have to do is to go out and play as hard as we can.”
No. 27 NC State d. No. 11 Texas, 4-3
2007 NCAA Tournament Round of 16
Singles competition
1. Dimitar Kutrovsky (UT) def. Nick Cavaday (NCSU) 6-4, 6-4
2. William Noblitt (NCSU) def. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) 6-1, 6-2
3. Jay Weinacker (NCSU) def. Luis Diaz Barriga (UT) 6-1, 6-2
4. James McGee (NCSU) def. Milan Mihailovic (UT) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
5. Josh Zavala (UT) def. Christian Welte (NCSU) 6-7, 6-1, 6-0
6. Andre Iriarte (NCSU) def. Jonah Kane-West (UT) 6-0, 6-3
Order of finish: 2,3,6,1,5,4
Doubles competition
1. Dimitar Kutrovsky/Josh Zavala (UT) def. Nick Cavaday/William Noblitt (NCSU) 8-4
2. James McGee/Jay Weinacker (NCSU) def. Milan Mihailovic/Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) 8-5
3. Bernhard Deussner/Luis Diaz Barriga (UT) def. David Rozek/Christian Welte (NCSU) 8-6
Order of finish: 1,2,3
Match Notes:
NC State 23-9; National ranking #27
Texas 20-9; National ranking #11
NCAA Round of 16
4 singles clinched match
