The No. 10 men's tennis team racked up two more wins over ranked opponents at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center this weekend.
Duke (4-1) won five of its six singles matches to beat No. 20 Texas, 5-2, Friday, and handily defeated 24th-ranked Texas A&M, 5-0, Sunday.
The ninth-ranked doubles team of Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke won both of its matches at the No. 1 spot this weekend, including Sunday's defeat of the No. 14 pairing. The duo improved its record this season to 13-3.
After dropping the doubles point against Texas (2-1), the Blue Devils rebounded to win two of the three doubles matches Sunday against the Aggies (0-4). It was the first time this season that Duke captured the critical first point.
"Today, winning the doubles point was good for us, because we haven't won the doubles point yet this season," Jonathan Stokke said after the match Sunday.
In addition to Atas and Stokke's win, Duke's third doubles tandem of Ned Samuelson and Ludovic Walter escaped with a win in a tiebreaker.
As had been the case throughout the match, the tiebreaker was closely contested. Serving for the match at 6-4, Walter double faulted to give the Aggies' pairing hope. But on the next point, the Blue Devils secured the victory and gave Duke the doubles point.
"I was just trying to stay positive and keep the intensity up," Samuelson said of the match.
The Blue Devils continued their strong play in singles this weekend, dropping just one match against the Longhorns Friday and sweeping their matches Sunday.
"We are playing very well in singles right now," head coach Jay Lapidus said.
Stokke, Atas and junior Peter Rodrigues all cruised to straight-set victories Sunday to clinch Duke's win.
As a result of time constraints, the two teams' coaches decided not to finish the first- and fifth-flight singles matches, although the Blue Devils held one-set advantages in both.
Walter, who is ranked ninth nationally, was dominating 16th-ranked Jerry Makowski in a game of baseline power when the match was called.
"I was happy with my game today," Walter said Sunday. "I didn't feel like my forehand worked against Texas but I think it worked today."
Walter's forehand gave Makowski trouble and kept him on the run the entire match.
The senior had moved into a fifth-place tie on Duke's career singles wins list when he triumphed Friday. With 110 career wins, Walter needs just one more victory to move into a fourth-place tie with Marko Cerenko.
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