There would be no rematch of the nation's top two women tennis players. At least not this weekend.
Duke freshman Ansley Cargill, who is ranked No. 1 nationally, was unable to avenge her loss last Saturday to Stanford sophomore Laura Granville, as the third-ranked Blue Devils (5-1) fell 4-1 on Saturday to defending national champion Georgia (5-0) in the semifinals of the National Team Indoor Championships in Madison, Wisc.
For the first time this season, the Blue Devils began singles play down 1-0 after losing at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles. The nationally ranked No. 22 Bulldog duo of Aarthi Venkatesan and Lori Gray narrowly defeated Duke's No. 3 tandem of senior Megan Miller and freshman Amanda Johnson 9-7.
"We need to be more aggressive," Johnson said. "We normally control matches and put our opponents away, but today we were too tentative."
Sophomores Hillary Adams and Katie Granson sealed the loss, falling in a tight 9-8 (5) match to Georgia's Tina Hojnik and Agata Cioroch.
Duke's lone doubles victory came from the 35th-ranked team of senior Kathy Sell and Cargill in an easy 8-3 defeat of Christa Grey and Alex Smith.
"Losing that doubles point left us a little bit deflated going into the singles," coach Jamie Ashworth said. "We would have had a mental advantage if were up 1-0."
Despite the doubles setback, Cargill evened the match with a quick 6-2, 6-1 victory over No. 22 Venkatesan.
"I felt like I improved in every match this weekend," Cargill said. "I had some ups and downs in the beginning, but against Aarthi [Venkatesan] I played up to my potential."
Cargill's match gave Duke its only point of the afternoon, as the Bulldogs swept the No. 3 through No. 6 singles spots.
Georgia's No. 20 Nguyen defeated Miller 7-5, 6-2; No. 57 Hojnik upset No. 7 Sell 6-2, 6-2 and Cioroch completed the sweep with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Granson.
After Georgia clinched the victory, the remaining two singles matches-Johnson vs. Lori Grey and Adams vs. Christa Grey-were abandoned.
In order to advance to the semifinals, the Blue Devils knocked out ninth-ranked Pepperdine 6-1 in the quarterfinals and 15th-ranked Tennessee 7-0 in the first round. Last year at this tournament, Pepperdine defeated Duke 4-3. They returned the same team this year but were overmatched by the Blue Devils.
"Our victory over Pepperdine shows how much more talent we have this year," Ashworth said. "We could rely on our talent alone in that match, but against a team like Georgia we need to be far more aggressive if we want to win."
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