North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 27 Pack Prepares for Final Non-Conference Matches
2/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
RALEIGH, N.C. - The No. 27 NC State men’s tennis team returns to competition on Feb. 27 in a doubleheader against No. 69 Virginia Commonwealth at 10 a.m., and Howard at 3 p.m. The Wolfpack will play again March 2 in a home match against UNC-Wilmington at 1:30 p.m.
Friday’s matches will be played in Richmond, Va., at the Thalhimer Tennis Center, while The Pack will face UNCW at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
Scouting Report:
No. 69 VCU is the highest-ranked opponent left on the non-conference slate. The Rams hold a 10-3 record with nine of its wins coming from home matches. Howard has a 1-3 record including a loss against nationally ranked UNC. The Bison are led by Ismael Kaouache who holds a 2-2 record at the No. 1 singles spot.
UNCW enters the weekend with a 6-1 record, including a win over No. 75 University of Louisiana. The Seahawks are dominating its opponents – winning by an average of six points in each of its wins. They are led by Andres Torres and Javier Restrepo who both hold undefeated records.
What’s Up With Choboy:
On Friday’s doubleheader:
“VCU is our first match; we always have very strong matches against them and I’m expecting another good test. We’re on the road again so that could make things more challenging, but we’ve had some good practices so I’m confident we can do a good job. Howard is our second match. They’ve played a lot less matches so we don’t have a lot of information on them.”
On Monday’s match against UNCW:
“I think adding the match against UNC-Wilmington will be good for us. We will be back at home and playing a higher-ranked team, which is good. We want to play as much strong competition as we can. They had an opening in their schedule as well, so it worked out nicely for both schools to play this match. We hope that the weather can turn for us so we can play outdoors. We want to get as many matches in as we can in preparation for the ACC outdoor season.
On mindset going into matches:
“One of the things we talked about before the Wisconsin match was that we wanted to come out quicker and keep pressure on our opponents and I think we did that. Our practices have also helped. We do a lot of competitive things in practice to push the guys so they don’t turn off that switch. We can do that with the upperclassmen team that we have. It is not so much about mechanics and strokes, and is now about competitiveness and being battle tested. We are really trying to push that.”
Pack in the Polls:
State has moved up one place in ITA national polls to No. 27. Robbie Mudge and Ian Dempster have climbed to No. 12 in the doubles rankings, while Austin Powell sits at No. 62 in the latest singles rankings.
Coming Home:
On Monday, It will have been 43 days since the Pack has played a home match. During its time on the road, the Pack logged 7,890 miles in trips to five states. During the stretch, the team faced five ranked opponents.
Last Time Out:
NC State split a pair of matches in Madison Wis., against No. 41 Drake on Feb. 14 and Wisconsin on Feb. 15. The Pack lost a 4-3 contest to Drake who now sits at No. 29 in the rankings, but bounced back the next day with a dominating 7-0 victory over the Badgers.
