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NC State women's tennis advances to face North Carolina for NCAA title

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•05/19/23•

TheWolfpacker

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No. 3 overall seed NC State women’s tennis is one match away from winning a first NCAA Championship. In the way: No. 1 and archrival North Carolina.

The Wolfpack, competing in its second Final Four in three years, advanced farther than the program ever has by sweeping No. 7 Stanford in Orlando, 4-0, in a match that was tighter than perhaps the scoreboard indicated.

NC State started strong by winning the doubles point followed by star freshman Diana Shnaider making quick work of Stanford’s Alexandra Yepifanova at singles No. 1, winning 6-1, 6-0. In two matches in Orlando, Shnaider has dropped only one game.

Leading 2-0 on the team score, NC State women’s tennis needed to win two of the remaining five singles matches, and eyes turned towards singles No. 2 and 6. In the latter, junior Gina Dittman won her first set 6-3. In the former, fifth-year senior Alana Smith later took the first set 7-5.

Smith appeared to be cruising in the second, leading 5-0, but Stanford’s Connie Ma then turned the tide and broke Smith twice to get the match back on serve at 5-5. Smith at one point had three match points while leading 5-1.

However, NC State came up clutch at that point.

Dittman controlled a second-set tiebreak from the opening point to secure 3-0 lead for the Wolfpack. Meanwhile, Smith had held serve, and moments after Dittman’s win faced two match points to break Ma’s serve.

After hitting a shot into the net to force a decisive deuce point, Smith watched as Ma hit a shot into the net to clinch a straight set, 7-5, 7-5 win, setting up a celebration for NC State.

In other matches, NC State junior Sophie Abrams and junior Amelia Rajecki each dropped their first sets at singles No. 5 and 3, respectively, but had battled back to force a third set. Junior Abigail Rencheli was serving to stay alive down a break at 5-3 after losing her first set at singles No. 4.

NC State and North Carolina split their two matches during the year. UNC won in the regular season with a 7-0 sweep in Chapel Hill, but Shnaider did not participate because she was in Hilton Head, S.C., for a pro tournament.

In the ACC Championship showdown, NC State rolled to a 4-1 win with Shnaider at the top of the singles lineup. That is North Carolina’s only loss in a dual action this season. The Heels advanced to the championship with a 4-0 win over No. 3 Georgia.

The title showdown is 5:30 p.m., Saturday.

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