Men's tennis falls to California at ITA team indoors

This weekend, the Blue Devils found out for themselves why California colleges have long been known for their powerhouse tennis teams. Following Thursday's 4-3 defeat of Texas, Duke faced No. 1 UCLA and No. 4 California in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Louisville. The eighth-ranked Blue Devils (6-3) put up an early fight Saturday against Cal (7-1) in the tournament's consolation backdraw, but failed to capitalize on a 3-0 advantage, losing the next four matches. Duke finished the weekend tied for seventh in the tournament.

Duke won the doubles point with a hard-fought 9-8 (5) victory by top tandem Phillip King and Michael Yani, while Jonathan Stokke and Jason Zimmerman handed Cal's duo of Patrick Briaud and Balazs Veress their first loss of the season.

King then went on to defeat Veress in singles, 6-1, 6-2. A win at the three spot by freshman Ludovic Walter put the Blue Devils within one match of upsetting the Golden Bears.

"In my first match against Texas, I was not going after my shot," the Vannes, France native said. "I was pushing the ball. The last match[against Cal], I played my game. I came in and hit the ball hard."

Cal came back by winning straight sets matches at the No. 2 and No. 6 spots when the team's top player Conor Niland defeated Yani, 6-2, 6-2, and Wayne Wong followed with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Peter Shults. The momentum remained with Cal as Steve Berke overcame a first set loss by taking the next two, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, over Stokke.

With the teams tied at three apiece, all eyes were on the match between Zimmerman and Cal's Robert Kowalczyk. Zimmerman lost the first set tiebreaker 7-6 (7), but won the second set breaker 7-6 (5). Kowalczyk's experience led him to claim the match, as the senior only dropped one game in the final set, allowing Cal to avenge last year's second round loss to Duke in the NCAA tournament.

"We had a lot of close matches," Walter said. "We are not far from the top teams. We just have to keep going hard."

Duke entered Saturday's match coming off a 4-1 quarterfinal loss to UCLA (11-1), the nations top-ranked team, Friday. The Bruins won the doubles point, pulling off two 9-7 victories at the two and three spots. In singles play, the Bruins jumped to a 3-0 lead in the match with Duke losses by Stokke and Yani. Walter then took a three-setter, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, for the Blue Devils' only win of the day. Bruin sophomore Alberto Francis clinched the victory for his school with a three-set victory over Shults.