Men's tennis dominates 2 weekend conference matches

The No. 3 men's tennis team swept two matches in as many days this weekend. The wins against No. 23 Georgia Tech Saturday and No. 47 Clemson yesterday mark the 35th and 36th consecutive ACC regular season match wins for the Blue Devils.

Duke (11-3, 3-0 in the ACC), easily put away the Yellow Jackets (12-4, 2-1) by a score of 7-0, as Duke swept all six singles matches and gained the doubles point by winning two of the three matches over Tech. The same was true for Clemson (3-14, 0-3) as Duke won 7-0 as well.

Showing a divergence from the usual singles lineup in these two contests, Duke sophomore Yorke Allen was back at his usual No. 6 against Tech, having played at No. 3 the match before. This tactic worked well for Duke because Allen easily defeated Yellow Jacket Joao Menano in two sets, 6-1, 6-3. Michael Yani, another sophomore who usually plays only doubles, played at No. 6 singles versus Clemson yesterday and defeated Kevin Gottfried 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

"We're trying to give everyone a chance to play and we're kind of mixing it up a little bit," Duke coach Jay Lapidus said. "We have so many guys on our team that are at a similar level, it's important for them from a motivational standpoint and for the team to feel that the guys are all getting shots to play in both singles and doubles. We're trying to do the best job we can to give everyone that opportunity."

Against Tech in singles competition, at No. 1 freshman Phillip King defeated Roger Anderson 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Duke seniors Smith, who is ranked seventh in the nation, 14th-ranked Cerenko and 28th-ranked Pedroso all took singles wins over the Yellow Jackets at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Smith won over Romain Coirault 6-2, 6-3, Cerenko over David Wright 6-2, 6-2 and Pedroso took the win over Stephen Moros 7-5, 6-1.

The doubles lineup was also changed a little against both the Yellow Jackets and at Clemson. Yani and Pedroso were paired up at No 2. The tandem fell to Coirault/Menano by a score of 8-6. But they won yesterday over Clemson pair Colhoun/Walker 8-1.

"We're maximizing our abilities in doubles, we just want to try to freshen up the doubles a little bit and see how it looks," Lapidus said. "We experiemented, we're experimenting, and in the process of experimenting."

Playing at No. 1 doubles in both games, King and Smith were paired up and defeated Anderson/Wright of Tech 9-8. The duo also won over Knight-Emendorfer of Clemson 8-6. And finally at No. 3 doubles, Cerenko and Ted Rueger won over Yellow Jackets Aguirre/Jason Jeong 8-3. The Cerenko-Rueger pair also defeated Micah Thompson/Jamin Thompson 8-3.