The second-seeded men’s tennis team (18-5, 8-3 in the ACC) had a major letdown at the ACC Tournament, losing to seventh-seeded North Carolina 4-2 at the Cary Tennis Center Friday.
The loss came only nine days after the Blue Devils whipped UNC 7-0, and it snapped Duke’s 11-match win streak against the Tar Heels (16-10, 6-7). The Blue Devils were a depleted team, though, as senior Peter Shults had to sit out the match because he became ill with pneumonia, and fellow starter Stephen Amritraj is out for the year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Jonathan Stokke—who won in three sets at the second singles position—acknowledged that the team was shorthanded, but thought the squad’s inability to give maximum effort ultimately led to the team’s demise.
“I don’t think that was the case for all of us,” Stokke said of team’s heart and focus. “But it definitely played a role. I’m not going to name names, but we could have given a better overall team effort. Most people feel we should have beaten UNC, and I think we were better on every court.”
The Blue Devils, ranked eighth nationally, looked strong coming out of the gate, winning two out of three doubles matches. Peter Rodrigues teamed with the inexperienced freshman Alex Stone to win 8-4 at No. 3, while Ludovic Walter and Charles Brezac earned an 8-5 victory at the No. 2 position to clinch the doubles point.
Without Shults and Amritraj, head coach Jay Lapidus chose to play Walter at No. 1, and then Stokke, Rodrigues, Brezac, Ned Samuelson and Jason Zimmermann in flights two through six, respectively. At No. 4, Brezac lost rather quickly to UNC’s Derek Porter, 6-3, 7-5. Rodrigues lost two tough sets at the third singles position to succumb to Geoff Boyd, 7-6, 4-6. Walter—the fifth-ranked player in the country—lost in straight sets for the third time in five matches, quickly leaving Duke in a 3-1 hole.
“It’s not a slump, it’s something that happens to everyone for a three or four game stretch over the course of a season,” Stokke said. “For Ludovic at No. 1, he never gets to take a match off, and if he is off his game just slightly, it gets exploited.”
Stokke gave the Blue Devils hope, battling for a three-set victory at No. 2 over Brad Pomeroy, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6. Down 3-2, Duke needed wins from their bottom two players to advance to the ACC semifinals, but the freshman Samuelson fell in three sets at No. 5, clinching the match for the Tar Heels.
“I thought everyone fought hard,” said Zimmermann, whose match at No. 6 ended before it was finished when it became irrelevant. “But I didn’t think we played as well as we could at a couple of the positions that we lost.”
UNC went on to lose in the semifinals to Florida State, which eventually lost to Virginia in the finals. The tournament victory gave UVa its second-consecutive ACC crown, and Cavaliers junior Darrin Cohen garnered tournament MVP honors with a 5-0 record over the weekend.
The early exit will inevitably drop Duke in the national rankings, and consequently make the squad’s draw in the NCAA Tournament tougher. After losing handily to a lower-ranked team, it is clear that the Blue Devils will need Peter Shults to have any shot at advancing far in the tournament. Stokke said Shults will be ready to go.
“Having a lower seed doesn’t stop me from believing we will go far in the tournament,” Zimmermann said. “This loss shows us what we really need to work on, we will be positive from here on out and hopefully improve in the next three weeks before the tourney.”
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