North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 36 Women's Tennis Advances at ACC Championships
4/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Altamonte Springs, Fla. - The No. 36 Women’s Tennis again found themselves on the winning end of a tight 4-3 match to defeat their second straight ranked opponent by a 4-3 score. Coming off a 4-3 victory over No. 19 Florida State, the Pack (No. 8 seed) were able to defeat No. 38 Wake Forest (No. 9 seed), 4-3, in the first round of the ACC Women’s Tennis Championships. The Pack improved their record to 13-9 overall while Wake Forest fell to 8-13 on the season.
“I told the team that they are getting really good at winning these close matches and I think they seem to thrive on it,” Head Coach Hans Olsen said. “That is now two matches in a row that it came down to the third set, and you could tell that our girls were mentally ready for that situation.”
The Pack got off to a great to start to begin the match as they took the doubles point by winning two of the three doubles matches. Daria Petrovic and Berkeley Brock were able to win at No. 2 doubles by an 8-3 score before Catherine Grotz and Lenka Hojckova fell 8-4 at No. 1 singles. Neils Barringer and Julia Roach were able to clinch the point for the Pack as they won 8-5 at No. 3 singles.
The singles matches didn’t start off well for the Pack but they finished the day with three straight wins. The first match to conclude was at No. 4 singles where Julia Roach fell, 6-2, 6-1, to Emilee Malvehy. At No. 5 singles Catherine Grotz dropped a 7-6 (3), 6-1 decision to Katarina Reveche.
Sasha Kulikova gave the Deacons a 3-1 lead after she narrowly beat Daria Petrovic at No. 1 singles. After Petrovic won the first set 6-3, she lost the second set in a tiebreaker before losing the final set 6-0.
The Wolfpack began to chip away at the lead as Berkeley Brock took a 6-3, 7-5 win against Christian Tara at No. 2 singles. Lenka Hojckova tied the team score 3-3 by defeating Sierra Poske 7-5 7-6 (4) at No. 3 singles.
The match came down to No. 6 singles where Neils Barringer was in a three-set thriller with Aileen Davis. After being up 6-5 in the first set, she dropped the set 7-6 (2) in a tiebreaker. She came back to win the second set convincingly by the score of 6-1 before falling behind 3-0 in the third and final set. Barringer was able to battle back and rattle off the final six games of the set to win the match and clinch the victory for the Pack.
“Neils (Barringer) came out mentally strong in the second set after losing a tight first set,” Olsen said. “She quickly went up 4-1 and won the set, 6-1, and then was down 3-0 in the third. Neils again kept her composure and did a great job to not panic. She held on and then won six games in a row to close it out.
The Pack have now advanced to the quarterfinals where they will face No. 1 seed Georgia Tech tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. The match will be played at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla.
No. 36 NC State 4, No. 38 Wake Forest 3
DOUBLES
1. Kulikova/Poske (WF) def. Grotz/Hojckova (NCSU) 8-4
2. Petrovic/Brock (NCSU) def. Malvehy/Tara (WF) 8-3
3. Barringer/Roach (NCSU) def. Davis/Reveche (WF) 8-5
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
SINGLES
1. Sasha Kulikova (WF) def. Daria Petrovic (NCSU) 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0
2. Berkeley Brock (NCSU) def. Christian Tara (WF) 6-3, 7-5
3. Lenka Hojckova (NCSU) def. Sierra Poske (WF) 7-5, 7-6 (4)
4. Emilee Malvehy (WF) def. Julia Roach (NCSU) 6-2, 6-1
5. Katarina Reveche (WF) def. Catherine Grotz (NCSU) 7-6 (3), 6-1
6. Neils Barringer (NCSU) def. Aileen Davis (WF) 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish: 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6*
