The N.C. State men’s tennis team won their third consecutive match to open the season Sunday morning, handling Penn State 6-1 in the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. It was the first of two matches of the day for the No. 59 Wolfpack.
The match started out with a tough-fought battle in doubles between the two teams. Senior Dominic Hodgson and junior Matt Thomson made quick work of their opponents, winning 8-2.
The Nittany Lions, however, responded with an 8-4 victory over NCSU senior Julian Sullivan and sophomore Sean Weber, tying the teams at 1-1. Senior Jaime Pulgar and freshman Austin Powell came through for the Pack at the No. 3 doubles spot, winning 9-7 to hand State the doubles point for the match.
In singles, the Pack continued their trend of winning. Pulgar, Hodgson, freshman Robbie Mudge and Powell marked the top four for the Red Terrors, with each of them having little trouble sending their opponents home.
Junior Rafael Paez played the only three-set match of the meeting. Paez bounced back from a winless first set to tack on the Pack’s fifth singles victory of the day, winning 0-6, 7-5 6-4. Sophomore Ivan Sanchez Gomez suffered the Wolfpack’s lone singles loss, 6-2, 6-2.
The win moved State to 3-0 on the season and improved their all-time record against Penn State to 10-0.
The Pack, who faced East Carolina University in their second match of the day, had little trouble against the Pirates, improving their season-opening winning streak to four.
State had three terrific doubles matches to open up against ECU, winning all three handily. It was apparent the team was well prepared for their first in-state opponent of the season.
The duo of freshman Beck Bond and junior Will Rollinson picked up the first doubles victory for the Pack, finishing quickly by the score of 8-4. The No. 1 doubles team in Weber and Sullivan rebounded from their loss earlier in the day, finishing closely behind Bond and Rollinson by a final score of 8-4. Mudge and Pulgar teamed up at the number two spot for the Pack, battling it out for an 8-3 victory to give all three doubles victories to N.C. State.
The competition picked up in singles however as Sean Weber dropped the first singles match for the Pack in a tough loss, 4-6, 5-7.
Julian Sullivan responded with a 6-3, 7-5 victory after trailing 2-5 in the second set. Sullivan felt regaining momentum was key to his victory.
“I won the first set, and I lost focus,” Sullivan said. “But I knew that if I kept my focus, I could regain that momentum. My main goal was to take it point by point, and I started to play a lot better and I came
