Going into Wednesday’s ACC battle with N.C. State, Duke had lost the doubles point in five consecutive matches. The early struggles cost the Blue Devils a win against William & Mary and forced the team to rely on its singles players.
Duke (11-5, 2-0 in the ACC) decided to try new doubles combinations to find success. The plan worked as the Blue Devils broke their recent habit, sweeping the Wolfpack (7-9, 0-6) in doubles play and giving the team an early edge that it would not relinquish. The No. 10 Blue Devils defeated a struggling Wolfpack team 5-2 Wednesday at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center in Raleigh.
“We tried to mix up the doubles teams and try some new combinations,” junior Jackie Carleton said. “We’ve been practicing doubles, we just need to get on a roll and find some good combinations.”
Although Duke won each of the doubles matchups, N.C. State stayed within striking distance at every position. Tory Zawacki and Kristin Cargill managed to hold off their opponents at No. 1 doubles, taking the match, 8-5. Carleton and partner Parker Goyer followed suit with an 8-5 victory, and Saras Arasu and Lauren Archer completed the sweep, winning 8-6.
Heading into singles play, the Blue Devils chose to make changes to their usual singles lineup as well. Arasu, who usually plays in the bottom half of the lineup, moved to the top of the order. Duke’s usual top performers, Katie Blaszak and Carleton, sat out during singles play.
N.C. State took advantage of facing a weaker player in the No. 1 singles position, as Barbara Orlay defeated Arasu 6-2, 7-6 to tie the match at 1.
Duke responded with consecutive wins on courts two and three from Clelia Deltour and Cargill. Both players won easily despite playing at higher positions, and their combined effort brought the Blue Devils to within a point of the victory at 3-1.
Zawacki finished the match with a grueling two-set win. She battled back and forth with N.C. State’s Danielle Stadelmann in the first set before breaking on Stadelmann’s final serve and holding her own to win, 7-5. The second set was equally tight but ended in the same fashion, with Zawacki winning the tiebreaker, 7-1. Her win clinched the match and gave Duke its fourth victory in its last five contests.
Duke split the remaining two matches with N.C. State, making the overall score 5-2. Tied with a set apiece, Archer dropped a tiebreaker 11-9 that was played after the overall match had been decided, and Goyer won her match, 6-1, 6-3.
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