On Friday, the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils came to town and defeated No. 28 N.C. State 4-3 at Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Outdoor Tennis Stadium in the Wolfpack’s ACC opener.
In the doubles matches, Duke would pick up the point, sweeping all three matches. The most competitive doubles match was between State sophomore Sean Weber and redshirt senior Julian Sullivan against Duke’s No.62 duo, Henrique Cunha and Chris Mengel, which the latter won in a 8-7 tiebreaker.
N.C. State would win three of six singles matches. Both senior Dominic Hodgson and freshman Austin Powell would win their matches in two sets.
Coach Jon Choboy pointed out Powell’s energy in Friday’s match.
“Austin [Powell] brought it,” Choboy said. “He brought tremendous energy and effort.” He finished [the match] off and I thought he did a good job of stepping up the level in singles.”
Junior Rafael Paez won his match in three sets, 3-6, 6-2 and 6-3 against Luke Marchese.
In addition, Choboy was high on senior Jaime Pulgar and freshman Robbie Mudge despite their losses.
“[Pulgar] didn’t win his match, but he competed and got up three to zero and had a chance to go up four and five [to] zero if he converted a couple more points,” Choboy explained. “[His opponent Cunha] is in the top five in the country. Robbie Mudge lost his first match of the year to a top fifteen player. I think the guy was good, but Robbie played well.”
Coming into Friday, Mudge was 14-0. Despite the 4-6, 2-6 loss, Choboy is still as confident as ever in his freshman’s ability.
“Robbie lost his first match,” Choboy said. “But, I would never bet against him. I wouldn’t bet against him down to his last point. I expect the kid will go out and do a great job, but you can’t keep that kid down.”
The Blue Devils now have 41 consecutive wins over the Pack, a streak dating back to 1980. However, three of the last seven has been close, 4-3 wins.
Choboy believes had his team played to its normal level, it would have been a good position to defeat Duke.
“[The difference] was coming out tight,” Choboy said. “You can’t go out there and do that. We got to go out there and play a little looser. [Assistant Coach] Stephen [Ward] said we only played at 75 percent of our capability.”
Hodgson agrees with his coaches.
“In doubles, I think I let myself down,” Hodgson said. “I don’t think I played nearly as well as I think I could have played. We kind of gave away a point in doubles. In singles, I thought I raised my level a bit. My opponent has had some good wins this season, so to get a win like that is pleasing for myself, but still disappointing for the team overall.”
Choboy believes his team controls its own fate.
“We will focus on taking care of our own business making first serves for an example,” Choboy said. “Once we do that, everything will be fine and we’ll be in good shape. We had to earn the three points and for the other four we didn’t do what we needed on our side of the net. That’s the bad part, but it’s easily fixable.”
On Sunday, the Wolfpack traveled to Chapel Hill for its second ACC game and was defeated 6-1 by the No. 32 North Carolina Tar Heels. Pulgar picked up the lone point in his singles match, winning, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
