Less than one week after the men’s tennis team fell to No. 4 Baylor in the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, N.C. State’s last shot at a national championship slipped by senior William Noblitt and junior Nick Cavaday, as they fell 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championships in Athens, Ga.
According to coach Jon Choboy, the duo practiced diligently between the team’s Elite 8 run and their first round match between Mississippi’s Eric Claesson and Erling Tveit. Choboy said the duo just didn’t perform to their potential.
“Saturday until Thursday we were just practicing and training to get ready,” Choboy said. “And I don’t know if that [fatigue] had something to do with it or if it’s just the fact that it was kind of a new experience for them, being in the individual event. But I can’t really analyze it. We did have good practices; we trained with Virginia Tech’s team. I can’t put my finger on it, but it certainly wasn’t a level we were accustomed to playing at.”
Choboy said the more significant loss for the Wolfpack as a team will be the loss of Noblitt, as his eligibility has expired with graduation. Noblitt is the all-time State leader in both singles and doubles wins, tallying a career record of 95-46 in singles play and 87-54 in doubles. Choboy said his leadership will be missed most.
“He’s just done so much for the program,” Choboy said. “And watching him grow as a player over the past four years, from not even really being consistently in the top six his freshman year, to going on and breaking both singles and doubles records at N.C. State is really huge. Noblitt laid the foundation in a big way for some of the young guys coming up behind him who really aspired to do what he did.”
According to Choboy, the loss of Noblitt is especially difficult as he and fellow senior Andre Iriarte are Choboy’s first recruiting class to play under him for four years.
“He was in my first recruiting class,” Choboy said. “It’s going to be tough to see him go because of the records he’s set here. Just the way he went about doing everything, and he’s from North Carolina, which is important to me personally.”
Though the loss was disappointing, Choboy said the success of the record-setting year is just sinking in. The Pack posted a 23-10 record, the most wins in school history and advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, another first for the men’s tennis team.
“We finally got to playing to our potential, and we played up to our capabilities,” Choboy said. “And there’s no better time to do it than the NCAA Tournament. When we beat [No. 11 Texas], we validated the win over [No. 6] UNC. I think a lot of people thought, ‘Well they won’t be able to win another one,’ and we continued to go on, and in reality we did a really good job. It was a great year for the team as a whole.”
