The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/470359
62 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY RYAN TICE N ew women's tennis head coach Si- mon Earnshaw is starting to see the fight he hoped for out of the Wolfpack. The first-year mentor, who led the men's and women's programs at Armstrong Atlantic State University to nine combined Division II national champion- ships at his previous job, admits the first semester was, not surprisingly, a bit of a learning process for both the coach and the players. The progression has continued this spring, and the team got off to an impressive start, upsetting No. 67 Georgia State 4-3 in early February. Earnshaw's squad faced no short- age of adversity in that matchup — it was a team that beat NCSU 6-1 last year, and the coach thought State would have an advan- tage if the match was played indoors. How- ever, the weather was so nice in Raleigh that it was contested outside. Georgia State also shuffled around its lineup, and had the player Earnshaw thought was its best at the No. 2 singles position, while the team's highest-ranked player ap- peared all the way down at No. 3. NC State stepped up to meet the challenge regardless. "Circumstantially, it was good for us to fight through all of that, and also we were down after the doubles point," Earnshaw remembered. "You can gain a bit of character from things not exactly lining up the way you want them to. We were able to preserve through it, and that was definitely a good win for us. It was good that we were able to turn that result around [from the previous year]. ■ PREVIEW WOMEN'S TENNIS EMBRACING CHANGE The Wolfpack Is Building A Foundation Under Its New Head Coach Junior Joanna Nalborska, a native of Warsaw, Poland, and a transfer from Louisiana Tech, had an overall singles record of 12-8 through Feb. 26. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS