The Wolfpacker

88 ■ THE WOLFPACKER "If you put too much on their plate right now, it may inhibit their development even more. It's a tricky balance." The good news is that Frantova hit the ground running. She notched five wins over ranked opponents in the fall, including ver- sus No. 5 Josie Kuhlman of Florida. She also won the Gold singles bracket at the USTA Clay Court Invitational Nov. 5-8 in Orlando, Fla. "Martina had a huge fall," Earnshaw noted. "I would expect her to be close to the top 20 in singles rankings when they come out in January. We are feeling pretty good about Martina." Nalborska, a senior, is also back after registering nine wins last spring during the dual season while competing primarily at No. 1 singles. "Outside of that, it's anybody's game at this point and time," Earnshaw noted. "There are still a lot of question marks and a lot of straightening out to do going into the spring." Sophomore Tayla Stenta finished the fall strong, winning the White singles bracket at the same USTA Clay Court Tourna- ment where Frantova shined and giving Earnshaw some optimism heading into the spring about her development. Minor injuries and other logistical is- sues prevented Earnshaw from working the doubles tandems as much as he would have liked, and that will be another point of emphasis early in the spring. The biggest focal point, though, remains the maturation process for his talented freshmen as they enter the gauntlet that is ACC tennis. "I am pretty sure from a talent standpoint and an athleticism standpoint we can play," Earnshaw said. "It's going to be very important that we are better at the end than we were at the beginning, and that no matter what, we keep going and going," he added. "This fall we had our best two events, particularly the last event, at the end. "If you just hang around for long enough and have the right attitude and concentrate on the long term, eventually something is going to happen." ■ ■ By The Numbers 6-4 NC State players' record against ranked opponents this fall, the first winning mark in such matches since 2011. 14 More wins this fall recorded by the Wolfpack than they had in the 2014 fall campaign. Noting The Pack • The talent appears to keep building for Earn- shaw. After signing the best recruiting class in NCSU history in 2015, he added two more five-star pros- pects in the 2016 class in November. Anna Rogers from Stanford, Conn., was rated as the No. 44 recruit in the 2016 class nationally by Ten- nisRecruiting.net after being listed as high as No. 31. Adriana Reami from Miami is listed at No. 48 and has been ranked as high as No. 29 previously. Reami is 12-7 against other five-star recruits this year. "On paper, [last year's class was] a good group," head coach Simon Earnshaw noted. "We're clearly going to add to that group with the class we an - nounced … the competition, not just in the ACC, is never going to get weaker, but even on our team is going to get tougher." • How difficult is the ACC in women's tennis? In the final rankings of last season by the ITA, six of the top 20 were from the conference. "If you go .500 in the ACC, you are in the tourna - ment no problem and maybe even in the top 25," Earnshaw noted. Senior Joanna Nalborska competed primarily at No. 1 singles last spring and netted nine wins during the season, including a pair over ranked opponents. PHOTO BY JED GAMMON/COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS ■ Key Matches • At LSU, Feb. 12 — The Tigers will be a stiff early test for the young Wolfpack. This will be NCSU's first road match, and LSU reached the second round of the NCAA Championships last season. • Vs. Virginia, March 19 — The Cavs are one of the better programs in the ACC and were the ninth overall seed in last year's NCAA Championships. They reached the third round before falling to eighth-seeded Baylor. This will be just NCSU's second home ACC match after starting league play with the first three on the road. • ACC Championship, April 20-24 — The conference tournament will once again be held at the Cary Tennis Park, just outside of Raleigh. The ACC is college tennis' best league, and Earnshaw hopes his team is in a competitive position, where they can threaten to advance further than last year's second round.

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