The Duke women’s tennis team came out flat Wednesday as 17th-ranked Florida blanked the No. 7 Blue Devils, 4-0.
In their last non-conference match of the season the Blue Devils (10-4) lacked the hustle of a top-10 team.
“We came out with no fight,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We talked after the match that we aren’t a good enough team to just show up.”
Duke struggled early in the doubles matches. Alex Liles and Nina Suvak of Florida (8-2) defeated Blue Devils Clelia Deltour and Parker Goyer 8-1 to clinch the doubles victory and jump to a 1-0 lead.
Poor doubles play has plagued Duke all season, forcing the Blue Devils to win four of six singles matches to take a victory. Despite a 3-2 record over the last five matches, Duke has failed to win the doubles point every time.
“We have struggled so much with our doubles,” Ashworth said. “If you keep losing doubles points, it is going to catch up to you. It got us tonight.”
Duke lost its first three singles matches in quick fashion. Florida’s Suvak set the tone by breaking serve in the first game on her way to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Kristin Cargill.
Fellow Gator Whitney Benik took down Deltour 6-3, 6-1, and Liles delivered the final blow in beating Duke’s Jenny Zika 6-4, 6-0.
“Tonight’s victory was especially fun,” Florida head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We out-hustled them today, and we wanted it more. I’m more proud of our effort than anything else.”
This was Florida’s second consecutive win over a top-10 team. It defeated ninth-ranked North Carolina Sunday, 6-1.
In a lone bright spot on the day for Duke, Saras Arasu led Boglarka Berecz 6-4, 2-3 when the match was halted.
“She did a good job of battling and fighting,” Ashworth said. “Saras took some chances and was pretty good mentally.”
As the team gears up for the final weeks of the season, it will focus its energy on the doubles matches and team aggressiveness, Ashworth said.
Duke has prided itself on its attitude entering each match. Wednesday, however, that attitude never showed itself.
“I’ve been at Duke for eight and a half years aggressiveness is what we’ve built our team on,” Ashworth said. “It comes from our grit and fight. We need to have a never say die attitude. We had nothing today. We need to recapture it.”
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