North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 33 Men's Tennis Travels to Sunshine State
3/22/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 22, 2012
Match Notes (3/23/2012) 
| Season Stats
Miami live stats | Florida State live stats
RALEIGH, N.C. – Continuing its five-match Atlantic Coast Conference road trip, NC State’s No. 33 men’s tennis team heads to Florida this weekend for a pair of conference matches in the Sunshine State.
The Wolfpack (14-4 overall, 0-2 ACC) is looking to bounce back from a home loss to No. 6 Duke and a road loss to No. 32 North Carolina in the first weekend of ACC play, but will face a stiff challenge against two more ranked league opponents. Nine of the ACC’s 12 teams are ranked in the Campbell’s ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings.
The No. 54 Hurricanes (7-5, 0-3) are coming off a 5-2 victory over Alabama heading into the 2 p.m. contest against the Wolfpack at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla. Miami has won 13 of the 14 matches against the Wolfpack.
On Sunday, the Pack will face first-place and No. 31 ranked Florida State at noon at Scott Speicher Tennis Center in Tallahassee, Fla.
The Seminoles (13-4 overall, 4-0) will be looking to bounce back from their first home loss of the season, after falling 6-1 to No. 25 Oklahoma on Tuesday.
Florida State and NC State have only one common opponent on their schedules: The Wolfpack lost a narrow 4-3 decision at UNC Wilmington on March 6. The Seminoles defeated the Seahawks 6-1 at home on March 15.
Wolfpack senior Jaime Pulgar, a two-time All-ACC selection who is ranked No. 66 nationally, is the Pack’s top player with a 13-2 overall record. He dropped a close 6-4, 6-3, decision to No. 3 Henrique Cunha of Duke last weekend, then bounced back with a a strong performance against No. 34 Jose Hernandez of North Carolina, taking a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 decision at Chapel Hill’s Cone-Kerfield Tennis Center.
Pulgar has been steady all season at the top of the lineup for the Wolfpack and is 2-2 against ranked opponents. Both his losses were to top five players, Cunha and No. 5 Eric Quigley of Kentucky in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in January.
Live stats for both the Florida State and Miami matches are available at the above links. Recaps of both matches will be available on GoPack.com following their completion.
The Wolfpack, which has more overall wins than any team in the ACC, will close out its five-match ACC road stretch next weekend when it travels to Virginia Tech on Friday for a 2:30 p.m. match and to Virginia on Sunday for a 1 p.m. match.
The Pack will return to the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center to face Boston College on April 6 at 2:30 p.m. and Maryland on April 7 at noon.
