CHAPEL HILL - When the biggest suspense of the afternoon is preserving a shutout, then it's safe to say you've had a good day.
In its final tuneup before next week's National Team Indoors, the third-ranked women's tennis team rolled to two easy wins in Chapel Hill this weekend, recording one whitewash and narrowly missing another.
Duke (3-1) defeated Brigham Young 8-1 on Saturday and returned to the Friday Tennis Center on Sunday to shutout No. 24 Northwestern 7-0.
Most importantly at this early juncture of the season though, aside from just the numerical results, is improvement. And by that account, the Blue Devils were highly successful as well.
"Its only been four matches and I'm already seeing improvement," Duke coach Jody Hyden said. "[Sunday] was much better than [Saturday]. I'm seeing that we're trying to improve and the girls are having success out there."
Against BYU, the Blue Devils took five of the six singles matches. Senior Diana Spadea turned in the most dominant win, coming at the fourth spot, with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Juliet Alder.
Freshman Karin Miller, coming off last weekend's Rolex Indoors title, won a tough first set 7-5 over Eline Chiew before breezing to a 6-2 second set to win at the No. 1 singles spot.
Seniors Luanne Spadea and Karen O'Sullivan and junior Ellen McCance also recorded singles wins while junior Laura Zifer took the only loss, falling at the fifth spot to Willy Lee Chan.
Duke was equally dominant in the doubles competition. The Blue Devils' No. 1 team of O'Sullivan and Diana Spadea topped Chiew and Adrien Jenkins 8-3. Duke's other two pairs also came out on top, both by scores of 8-4.
"[BYU's] had a good year already," Hyden said. "I didn't know what to expect. We came out and took them much more seriously and we were more focused than against William and Mary. I think that's why we had such a good result."
The good results continued to flow on Sunday against Northwestern. The doubles portion of the match followed the men's format, in which the teams play for one point.
Duke took all three of the matches to earn the point. O'Sullivan/Luanne Spadea won at the top spot 8-4 over Marjorie Gantman and Laura Guignon. Senior Wendy Fix and sophomore Kristin Sanderson, who both took Saturday off, won at the third spot 8-4 while Miller/Zifer took their match 8-6.
In singles play, Zifer rebounded from her earlier loss to Chan, rolling over the Wildcats' Robyn Porter 6-1, 6-2.
Miller, Fix, Diana Spadea and O'Sullivan also recorded easy straight-set wins. Miller's win improved her overall record to 20-3.
The afternoon's only suspense was No. 3 seed Luanne Spadea's match with Katherine Nasser. Spadea took the first set with ease 6-3 and then closed out the weekend by taking a tough second set 7-5.
The Blue Devils' strong play comes at the right time, as they prepare to travel to Madison, Wis. next weekend for the National Team Indoors.
Duke will join the other top-15 teams in the country in a four-day tournament that could establish the early favorites heading into the dual match portion of the spring season.
Even without sophomore Vanessa Webb, who will be sidelined until Mar. 5, Duke feels good about its chances.
"We have a really talented team," O'Sullivan said. "We're playing really well right now going into the Indoors."
Hyden agrees, and feels the early portion of the schedule has helped his team prepare.
"The Indoors are going to be a good test," Hyden said. "I'm glad we got four dual matches in first."
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