By Dalton Ray —
Men’s tennis continues to go through the grind of the ACC as they drop a senior day match against No. 23 North Carolina State. The Wolfpack won 4-2 as the Cardinals made a late push.
Coach Rex Ecarma had some stern words for his team after the match.
“Honestly, we’re not clutch. Last year, we find ways to win that,” Ecarma said. “When you have all the players back from a good team the year before, expectations get really high.”
NC State won the doubles point with tight matches (5-5, 6-4, 6-4) across the board. A controversial call late on court three shifted the momentum in NC State’s favor.
“That happens, it’s all apart of the game. It made it more difficult to rebound,” Ecarma said. “But we were still ok. We beat Duke five out of six courts after dropping the doubles point.”
Junior Chris Morin-Kougoucheff beat No. 37 Alexis Galarneau 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 to bring the Wolfpack to 2-1.
Louisville split courts five and six, raising the intensity on the final courts.
Junior Federico Gomez couldn’t finish off Tadas Babelis, losing 3-6, 6-4, 5-7. The point clinched the match for NC State.
Louisville is now 15-8 and travels to Virginia Tech April 20. With the postseason approaching, Ecarma said the Cardinals will switch up the practices this week.
“We’re going to do a lot of individuals this week. We’re going to central on certain guys who need to raise their level,” Ecarma said. “Virginia Tech is playing their best tennis so we’re running into a hot team on the road. We have our word cut out for us.”
You can follow Dalton Ray on Twitter @dray5477.
Photos by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal
