The women’s tennis team came within a point of winning both of its home matches over the weekend but only managed a single victory.
“We’re doing a good job of getting on top, but we really have to work on finishing,” said head coach Jamie Ashworth.
The 10th-ranked Blue Devils defeated No. 32 Florida State (9-8, 4-4 ACC) 4-3 Sunday after losing 4-3 to No. 11 Miami the day before. Both matches were played inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center due to weather conditions.
Coming off of Saturday’s narrow loss to the Hurricanes (16-2, 7-0), Duke (12-5, 3-1) found itself in a similar situation Sunday as Saras Arasu battled with FSU’s No. 3 player with the team score tied at 3.
Arasu had dropped the first set 6-4 before storming back to take the second 6-2 behind aggressive, well-placed shots.
“I just didn’t feel like I was moving well. I wasn’t hitting the ball well,” said Arasu. “I told myself the second set is a brand new set. I started being a little more aggressive.”
The senior jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the third, leading her to play more conservatively as she sought to close out the match. Her safe play, however, allowed her opponent to fight back to within a game at 5-4.
In the final game of the set, Arasu benefitted from a few unforced errors by her tiring opponent before crushing a backhand down the line that gave Duke the 4-3 victory.
In contrast to their energetic doubles performance against Miami, the Blue Devils came out flat against FSU. Katie Blaszak and Jackie Carleton quickly lost their match at No. 2 doubles 8-1. Kristin Cargill and partner Tory Zawacki then followed suit, losing 8-6 and giving FSU an early 1-0 lead.
“Today, we pulled a no-show in doubles. That was really surprising,” said Ashworth.
Clelia Deltour and Cargill gave the Blue Devils their first points of the day as the two easily won their respective singles matches at the four and five positions, 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-2. Both were playing a spot higher than usual as Jennifer Zika sat out after having surgery. Carleton then put the Blue Devils ahead 3-1 with her second strong performance of the weekend, beating her opponent 6-1, 6-3.
Florida State, however, would not be so easily dispatched. The Seminoles came back to tie the score at three after Zawacki lost a grueling 3-set match, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Blaszak folded to her second ranked opponent of the weekend 7-5, 6-2. That left the match in the hands of Arasu, who pulled out the win.
A day earlier, Duke’s match with Miami fell on the shoulders of Deltour. The Blue Devil’s lone freshman, who usually is one of the first to finish her matches, was last on the court for the first time.
“It was hard, but it didn’t really change anything,” Deltour said of playing the deciding match.
Deltour led for most of the first set, but her opponent came back to force a tiebreaker in which she narrowly defeated Deltour 8-6. The second set was also close, but the freshman again found herself on the losing end, giving Miami its seventh conference win.
A solid doubles showing was the highlight of the Blue Devils’ performance Saturday. The team, which has used a number of different doubles lineups, may have finally found some working combinations as it heads towards postseason play.
“We’re trying to find the right combinations,” Ashorth said. “Hopefully in the last two or three weeks of our regular season we can find some doubles. I was really happy with our doubles yesterday.”
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