The Terrapins tennis team faced No. 70 N.C. State on Sunday in a match that held postseason implications for both teams less than a week before the ACC tournament.
After falling to No. 51 Boston College a day earlier, the Terps were in need of a spark. And they got one from Olga Gaistruk. The sophomore helped the Terps win the doubles point and took her singles match in a narrow 4-3 victory over the Wolfpack that helped them clinch the 12th seed in the conference championship.
“I was just really proud of her,” assistant coach Gina Suarez-Malaguti said. “The girl gave pretty much her everything — that attitude, feistiness, just everything. … It took mental toughness, physical [toughness] and discipline.”
The Terps and the Wolfpack began the contest locked in a close battle during doubles play. They split the first two matches, and the doubles point came down to partners Gaistruk and freshman Kristina Hovsepyan.
After rallying from a 3-0 deficit, the Terps forced a seven-point tiebreaker to decide the match. Gaistruk and Hovsepyan pounced on the Wolfpack’s Nicole Martinez and Elisha Hande in the tiebreaker to take a 6-3 lead.
On the final point, Gaistruk lobbed a ball far over her opponents. The ball seemed like it might have carried too much, but it dropped in play in the corner of the court for the winning point.
Gaistruk and Hovsepyan claimed their fourth win as a tandem in five matches together, giving the Terps the doubles point and a 1-0 lead. The point proved integral as the match continued.
“Every point was important,” coach Daria Panova said. “It was 4-3. We needed every single one of them.”
Gaistruk lifted the Terps again in the singles match, though she wasn’t originally scheduled to compete in singles play.
Freshman Olivia Gaudreault and Gaistruk had shared a platoon role in the final singles spot for much of the season.
Gaudreault was one of two players who captured a victory against Boston College on Saturday. Gaistruk, though, has struggled since her return from a knee injury Feb. 21 and still wears a brace. The Ukrainian had only one win in her 11 singles matches leading up to Sunday.
So when Gaudreault won against the Eagles, she was penciled in for the No. 6 position against N.C. State.
But Gaudreault was suffering from shin splints and when she saw Gaistruk’s performance in doubles, she asked Panova to reconsider the lineup. So the second-year coach decided to plug Gaistruk into the No. 6 spot.
At first, the decision looked like it might backfire when Gaistruk lost her first set, 6-4, to N.C. State junior Sophie Nelson. But she battled back to take the second, 6-3, and force a third.
“I didn’t know how it was going to turn out after the first set,” Gaudreault said. “I saw that she was up, and I saw that her whole attitude had changed. And she had become the passionate player I know she can be.”
While Gaistruk was playing Nelson, senior Welma Luus put away her match in a tiebreaker to give the Terps a 3-2 lead over the Wolfpack and bring them one win away from an overall victory.
Gaistruk sealed the triumph when she ripped a shot down the left sideline that gave the sophomore her first win in singles since Feb. 28 against Pitt.
When the Terps needed it most, Gaistruk delivered. She helped earn two points in a game in which the Terps needed every point to down the Wolfpack.
“It was good for her,” Suarez-Malaguti said. “It’s not like she’s in the lineup every single time, so it’s good for her to kind of feel that pressure of being the clincher.”
