The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1389905
JULY/AUGUST 2021 ■ 45 nothing wrong — they just didn't have ten- nis at this level, which is my job. "Everything else is fantastic. It's my job to provide that tennis." By year two under Earnshaw, NC State was in the NCAA Tournament. In year three, it had the first of back-to-back 7-7 seasons in the ACC. The breakthrough came in 2019, when NC State, behind seniors Bianca Moldovan, Amanda Rebol and Claudia Wiktorin, went 11-3 in the conference and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Earnshaw noted that group of seniors paved the way. "To change something that always has been is way harder than maintaining once something becomes that way," Earnshaw noted. COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season when NC State was off to a 5-1 start in the league, but it did not slow the Wolfpack's momentum. In 2021, they made history and that's why women's tennis is The Wolfpack- er's Female Team of the Year. NC State went 20-6 overall and 10-3 in the conference, and then during May went on an incredible run to make the program's first-ever Final Four appearance, knocking off third-ranked Georgia in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual national champion Texas in the semifinals. It is the first time since 1998 that an NC State athletics program reached the Final Four in a tournament-style championship. "It was the first time we came in at the national tournament where I would have said we are not just happy to be in the round of 16," Earnshaw said. The 20 wins tied a school record, and NC State posted a best-ever team finish of No. 6 in the Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis As- sociation (ITA) rankings. It spent the entire year in the top 15. The third-place finish in the ACC standings matched the highest ever for the Pack. Four different players — senior Anna Rogers at No. 9, junior Alana Smith at No. 34, freshman Abigail Rencheli at No. 70 and senior Adriana Reami at No. 94 — were listed in the final Oracle/ITA singles rank- ings, while four doubles pairs were also rated among the top 70. Rogers was an All-American in singles and became the first Wolfpacker to reach the NCAA Singles Championships' quarterfi- nals. Rogers and Smith teamed up to advance to the semifinals in doubles, while senior Jaeda Daniel and Reami were also doubles All-Americans. Four players earning All- America honors was another school record. All the success was not a given entering the season. Earnshaw was concerned about NC State being able to pick up where it left off in March 2020, and the ACC probably did not do him any favors by eliminating the fall schedule. "Those first two months of the season in January and February, the results weren't how they were going into the shutdown," Earnshaw admitted. "I was a little worried. Thankfully, by the time we got to March and April, their play started to look more like it did in March of 2020. "At that point, I knew we would be okay and could achieve some of our goals." One of the shining moments of that 2020 season was at the ITA National Indoor Championship, where NC State ended the event by beating No. 3 Georgia. Moths later, the Bulldogs stood in the way of a Final Four trip. "A lot of the tennis media all thought Georgia was going to kill us," Earnshaw said. "I don't think we thought that at all, and I actually don't think Georgia thought that, either." Earnshaw's last 11 years at Armstrong State before arriving at NC State featured trips to the semis every year and six Divi- sion II national titles. Beating Georgia, in a way, felt like a return of normalcy for Earnshaw. That would likely not have happened had Rogers and Reami skipped a chance to re- peat their senior years after the 2020 cam- paign was cut short. "Anna has won all the rewards and has the rankings, but Adriana was just as big as her," Earnshaw added. He also noted there is still more convincing to do in women's tennis circles that NC State has emerged as a national contender, and he is not resting after a Final Four appearance. "I would say we pushed them harder than any other year this year," Earnshaw said. "Going into next year, I think we have to do it the same way." ■ Senior Anna Rogers was named an All-American for her play in both doubles and singles, where she reached the NCAA quarterfinals. That was the furthest a Wolfpack individual had ever been. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS