The softball team will take its act on the road today as it travels to Buies Creek, N.C. to duel with Campbell in a doubleheader.
N.C. State, after sweeping ACC-opponent Virginia, is now 34-16 overall, 10-5 in the ACC and is riding a 10-game win streak after four consecutive series victories against Boston College, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro and Virginia.
The Wolfpack, which now finds itself in third place in the ACC standings, needs to continue to compete at a high level with a crucial series against second-place UNC looming in the near future.
Junior Lisa Nentwig attributed the success the Pack has enjoyed of late to motivational tactics coming from coach Lisa Navas. Despite her team winning its last 10 games, coach Navas demands improvement and expects her team to keep the ceiling high.
“Coach always takes it one game at a time and really motivates us,” Nentwig said. “For her, it’s like, ‘Alright, you won, but now it is time to step it up again.'”
Senior pitcher Abbie Sims, who tossed her sixth career no-hitter in the third game of the triple-header Saturday, said she hopes State can peak going into the ACC tournament, while not looking past feisty teams like Campbell.
“I think that it will be a good test for our team. We are hitting the ball really well, and I think we need to stay at that level,” Sims said. “That is what is going to be tough for us, just continuing to improve and move up from the level we are at right now, and to not get too satisfied and regress.”
Sims, with 1,019 strikeouts in her career, is now only one of five players in women’s softball history to record 1,000 or more in their career. She said it is a little too early for the team to peak with a considerable amount of softball left to play.
“I don’t know if it is the right time to peak or not,” Sims said. “We just want to keep performing at higher levels.”
Navas echoed those sentiments, as she said she hopes her team can build upon the success it has already enjoyed against Campbell. Navas said she wants her players to play within themselves and try to do whatever they can to play hard and win the game.
“It is just all about continuing what we are doing at this point. We are not trying to do anything outside of what we are capable of,” Navas said. “We are just going to play hard while at the same time not trying to force anything.”
With the Pack as one of the elite teams in the state and the ACC, Navas said the game against Campbell will be a challenge for her team.
“We’ll get the rust out at practice on Tuesday,” Navas said. “Campbell always plays well against us just like everyone does, and we just need to come to play.”
Early in the season, State did not live up to the expectations Navas had of her experienced team. The turnaround, according to Navas, came before the team traveled to Boston College for a three-game series when the seniors gathered together and decided to make a change.
“I attribute the win streak to the seniors. Before we went to Boston College, they were sitting there together, and I was like ‘Whoa, team meeting,'” Navas said. “They took it upon themselves to quit putting so much pressure on themselves and start trying to have fun and play hard.”
Navas said the team’s recent success has been based on a simple formula.
“We were thinking too much about rankings and numbers, and that wasn’t working,” Navas said. “Now we are just having a good time.”
