Head coach Jay Lapidus told the Blue Devils the same thing each of them had been thinking after they swept Virginia Tech Friday-"Sunday's going to be a war."
On Senior Day at Ambler Tennis Stadium, No. 6 Duke faced a difficult opponent in No. 11 Virginia. Duke was optimistic after securing a hard-fought doubles point, winning two of the three matches, 8-6. The Blue Devils, however, only managed one win out of six singles matches and lost the contest, 5-2.
"They're a really good team," Lapidus said. "They just outplayed us in singles and showed us why they were the No. 1 team in the nation preseason."
The Blue Devils (17-6, 9-2 in the ACC) faced four ranked opponents in singles play against the Cavaliers (19-7, 9-2).
Though both No. 4 Ludovic Walter and No. 50 Joey Atas were upset easily by No. 67 Rylan Rizza and No. 53 Treat Huey, respectively, many of the remaining Blue Devils seemed to have the momentum in their favor.
Stephen Amritraj led in his first-set tiebreaker at fifth singles, Jonathan Stokke won his first set, 7-5, on the second court, and Peter Rodrigues leveled his third-flight match after dropping the first set.
For all three players, however, everything went wrong.
Amritraj had five chances to close the first set, including two consecutive set points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker. After a competitive first set, the senior quickly dropped the second, 6-1.
"The guy just came up with good stuff," Amritraj said. "He played really well in those set points and with my game, it was tough to come back from that point."
Stokke struggled to win crucial game points in the final set, which led to the misleading 6-1 final score. Rodrigues, on the other hand, did not play his best tennis in the third set, losing the match, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
"I really thought we were in good shape there," Lapidus said. "P-Rod didn't feel that great on the court, but I still thought he was going to win. I just expected it because he's had such a great year."
Rodrigues completed his regular season with a 20-2 dual-match record.
His teammate, Kiril Dimitrov, was down, 6-3, 4-1, at the sixth-singles position, but the resilient freshman from Bulgaria roared back to win the second set in a tiebreaker and go up, 3-0, in the third. At that point, his opponent Darrin Cohen retired from the match with cramps.
In doubles competition, the crowd's gaze was on the second-doubles pair. Amritraj and Rodrigues were trying to hold serve at 7-6 and put away their opponents to capture the doubles point.
At 40-0 with triple-match point, Rodrigues followed his first serve with a high forehand volley at the service-line that landed in the middle of the net.
On the next point, Amritraj crushed an overhead that should have ended the match. Instead, the returner blocked the ball over the heads of both Duke players for an unusual winner.
With its last match-point opportunity, the doubles duo converted on a cross-court volley.
Against the 57th-ranked Hokies (12-14, 3-8) Friday, the Blue Devils were flawless, winning every singles and doubles match.
Despite losing just its second conference match of the season, the Blue Devils look forward to a possible rematch with the Cavaliers in the ACC Championships later this week.
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