Traveling down south for a pair of ranked matchups, No. 23 NC State men’s tennis continued to build momentum with wins over No. 49 Florida State and No. 62 Miami.

Picking up its seventh and eighth straight wins after beating the Seminoles (8-8, 0-4 ACC) and Hurricanes (7-7, 0-4 ACC), the Wolfpack is trending upward as it is hitting its stride in both doubles and singles. As competition ramps up, with No. 42 Louisville, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 2 Virginia looming in the next three matches, the Pack will need to be firing on all cylinders.

Florida State 4-1

On the first leg of its Florida trip, NC State men’s tennis took down Florida State 4-1, but the match was not as lopsided as the scoreboard indicates.

Starting with an intense tie-break to decide the doubles point, NC State got it done late in a number of matches on the way to victory. After the No. 85 ranked pairing of senior Martin Borisiouk and redshirt sophomore Jules Leroux upset the No. 17 ranked doubles duo for Florida State, the road to a Wolfpack victory was clear.

To finish off the opening point, redshirt freshman Cody Benton and freshman Ainius Sabaliauskas won in a tie break 7-4.

The intensity continued as five of six matches on the singles courts went to a third set. The one match that did not end in three sets went in favor of the Seminoles as FSU’s Mohammad Alkotop defeated Sabaliauskas 6-3, 7-6(5) to tie the duel 1-1.

To take the lead, freshman Darius Pop got it done on Court 6 against Justin Lyons 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Then, freshman Charlie Camus secured the win on Court 5 with a ranked victory over No. 118 Azariah Rusher 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Upon victory, Camus showed just how intense the match was as he set the table for his team to win. As he secured the third set, he threw his racket high into the air in celebration.

As Camus was finishing up, No. 97 sophomore William Manning had all but solidified a ranked win versus No. 76 Erik Schiessl. Manning had an abysmal start, dropping the first set 0-6, but found his way back into the match with a 7-5 result in the second set. Then, he closed it out 6-2 to clinch the win for NC State.

Two matches went unfinished. On Court 1, No. 13 Borisiouk won the first set against No. 106 Luis Felipe Miguel, but dropped the second 6-7(4). The match was clinched before Set 3 began. On Court 3, No. 110 Leroux was down 1-3 in the third set to Corey Craig.

Miami 4-2

No. 62 Miami fared similarly to Florida State as the Wolfpack got ahead early after securing the doubles point, and found singles wins on Courts 1, 5 and 6.

Borisiouk and Leroux took down Miami’s pairing of Antonio Prat and Jakub Kroslak 6-3, while Benton and Sabaliauskas got it done in a tie-break 7-6(5). Camus and Manning also got caught in a tie-break, but the previously stated match finished before the pairing could finish up as the doubles point had already been clinched.

Borisiouk picked up another ranked win on Court 1, defeating No. 98 Antonio Prat 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. On Court 5, Camus picked up a win over Miami’s Mehdi Sadaoui 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. The budding player continues to pick up steam in his freshman campaign. Sealing the deal, Pop secured a straight-set win over Jules Garot on Court 6 6-4,6-2.

Manning fell in straight sets and Sabaliauskas could not get it done after winning the first set. Leroux’s match on Court 3 went unfinished, as the match was tied one set apiece and three games all.

Next up, the Pack takes on No. 42 Louisville Friday, March 13 at 5:30 p.m.