Saturday double-headers continue to be kind to the Blue Devils.
Duke cruised past Coastal Carolina and Furman Saturday at home at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center, taking both matches of a weekend double-header for the second time in as many weeks. The Blue Devils dropped only one match in the two contests as they continue to try to prove themselves worthy of a return to the top 25 with ACC play just around the corner.
“It feels good,” Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “We have made a lot of progress as a team since the Vanderbilt match. We’ve [gone] 4-0. We lost one point in those four matches, with two double-headers against some good quality opponents. I am definitely happy with the progress and I think that should give us some good momentum going into the ACC season.”
In its first contest of the day, Duke handily defeated Coastal Carolina 4-0, with the three ongoing singles matches abandoned once the outcome had been determined. The Blue Devils wrestled away the doubles point from the Chanticleers with wins on doubles court two and doubles court three. Duke's top duo of sophomore Nicolas Alvarez and freshman Ryan Dickerson lost a tight 6-4 match to Coastal Carolina’s Pedro Leme and Vuk Velickovic on the first court, putting pressure on the other Blue Devils.
Senior Daniel McCall and freshman Jason Lapidus rose to the occasion, defeating Luiz Faria and Rick Timmerman 6-4 to knot doubles at one apiece and shift attention to the freshman pairing of Catalin Mateas and Vincent Lin. The duo had their hands full with the Chanticleers' Sebastian Schneider and Jabor Al-Mutawa, but secured a 7-6 (8-6) victory to clinch the doubles point.
After a short break, singles play went decisively in Duke's favor. Mateas bested Velockovic 6-1, 6-2 on court two, Lin routed Leme 6-2, 6-1 on court three and Dickerson's 6-1, 6-1 victory against Timmerman on court five put Coastal Carolina away for good.
In each the three unfinished contests, the Duke player had won the first set and was within two games of winning the second.
The Blue Devils returned to the courts at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon for their second match of the day, and suddenly found themselves trailing for its first time since Feb. 13 against Vanderbilt after Furman captured the doubles point.
Alvarez and Dickerson lost their match 3-6, but Mateas and Lin won 7-5, leaving Duke's opportunity to win the doubles point in the hands of McCall and Lapidus on court three. But the tandem could not duplicate their success from the morning session, falling to the Paladin pairing of Josh Pistorius and Adam Steryous in a tiebreak, 6-7 (2-7).
“We were on the winning end of a tight contest and we were on the losing end of a tight contest,” Smith said. “Doubles was a little bit up and down. At times, I felt like we didn’t bring the urgency that we needed to. I don’t know if the guys were a little bit relaxed, having already won a match, but we all know the doubles point goes so quickly. We got down breaks on all three courts too quickly.”
But Duke quickly recovered, rallying to claim all six singles matches. The first five courts went Duke’s way, each in straight sets. On court one, No. 15 Alvarez defeated Steryous 6-3, 6-3, but junior co-captain T.J. Pura delivered the most significant win of the afternoon.
Competing in is first match since Feb. 7 against Michigan after sustaining high ankle sprain, Pura clinched the match for the Blue Devils with a 7-5, 6-2 win against Furman's Ben Horst on court four.
“It was incredible to be out there,” Pura said. “I hadn’t gotten any wins in singles this year. It has been a rocky road. Coming back from injury and getting a win for the team and myself—there’s nothing better than that. The momentum has been growing. We’ve been growing as a team on and off the court. We definitely feel like we’re picking up steam.”
Duke will open its league slate March 6 against Georgia Tech.
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Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.