Despite a slew of close losses by its top singles players, the third-ranked women's tennis team (12-1, 3-0 in the ACC) pulled out a 4-3 victory over No. 35 Florida State (19-5, 5-1) Sunday in Tallahassee, Fla.
"Florida State is much better than its ranking, and I told the team that this was the best 35th-ranked team we're ever going to see," Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "But we took the crowd out of it right away, which was really important for us."
Duke started the match on a positive note, capturing all three doubles positions to claim an early 1-0 lead. The duos of Tory Zawaki and Julia Smith, Amanda Johnson and Saras Arasu and Jennifer Zika and Kristin Cargill won 8-5, 8-6 and 8-5 at the first through third position, respectively.
"Everyone is playing really well in doubles," Arasu said. "People are feeling more comfortable, and the teams that we have right now are working really well."
The Blue Devils would ultimately need the doubles point to defeat the Seminoles, as their top three singles players were all upset. At the No. 1 slot, senior All-American Johnson lost her second consecutive match to Anca Dumitrescu in three sets. Johnson fought back from an early 1-5 deficit in the opening set to take it 7-5, and she was ahead 4-2 in the second before losing four straight games to fall 6-4.
In the third set, Dumitrescu and Johnson traded games, and Johnson had a match point at 5-4. However, Dumitrescu recovered to send the match to a decisive tiebreaker, which she won 7-3.
"Amanda has lost a little bit of confidence in her forehand, but she'll get it back," Ashworth said. "She's a much different player when she's playing with 100-percent confidence in her strokes because she plays with no fear then. She's been thinking about her shots a little bit and she needs to just let it go."
Dumitrescu's Romanian teammate, Seminole junior Mihaela Moldovan, won her 20th consecutive match 6-2, 7-5 over freshman Zika at second singles. Fellow freshman Zawaki had her 10-match winning streak stopped in a tight 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) contest against Christina Denny at No. 3.
"We won 4-3, but we were two points away from winning 6-1," Ashworth said. "Amanda had a match point, and Tory was also just a few points away from winning."
Despite the struggles at the top of its lineup, Duke's depth was evident on Sunday.
Smith defeated Lindsay Deason 6-4, 6-1 at No. 4; Arasu won two tiebreakers to claim a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3) win over Roxanne Clarke at No. 5 in the clinching match; and freshman Cargill had the most lopsided victory of the day, 6-2, 6-2 over Brooke Cordell.
"I think I used our strong doubles showing to come out strong in singles," said Cargill, whose victory gave the Blue Devils an early 2-0 edge. "And one of the strongest things about our team is that we have amazing players at each position. With a team like that, we're difficult to beat."
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