Miami thwarted the women's tennis team's bid for sole possession of the ACC regular season title Sunday, defeating the Blue Devils, 4-2, at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla.
No. 7 Duke (16-6, 9-2 in the ACC) entered the contest riding a five-match winning streak after defeating Florida State, 4-1, Saturday. The No. 13 Hurricanes (17-5, 9-2), meanwhile, were coming off a crushing loss to Virginia, in which Miami squandered a 3-0 lead-dropping each of the final four singles matches to fall, 4-3.
Head coach Jamie Ashworth won the 225th match of his coaching career Friday against the Seminoles, and he currently has the highest winning percentage of any coach in ACC history.
Against the Hurricanes, the Blue Devils continued their strong performances in doubles play, securing the point with a 2-1 victory. Daniela Bercek and Jennifer Zika captured their biggest upset of the season, defeating the fifth-ranked pair of Melissa Applebaum and Audra Cohen, 8-7.
"That was a really good win for them," Ashworth said. "I thought going into singles we had a ton of momentum."
It didn't last for long.
After winning the doubles point, the Blue Devils quickly dropped matches at the No. 1 and No. 6 positions less than an hour into singles competition. In a matchup featuring two top-10 players, No. 2 Cohen breezed by No. 6 Bercek, 6-3, 6-0, while Caren Seenauth quickly defeated Jessi Robinson, 6-1, 6-1.
"Miami was coming off of a tough loss and I thought if we got that doubles point we would have a lot of momentum," Ashworth said. "We couldn't capitalize on that momentum and that's unusual for us."
After Melissa Mang fell to Monika Dancevic, 6-3, 6-2, senior Jackie Carleton won Duke's only singles match of the day, defeating Applebaum, 6-2, 6-4. Patricia Starzyk then killed any hope of a Blue Devil comeback, sealing the Hurricanes' victory with a 7-6 (9-6), 6-4 win over Clelia Deltour.
Ashworth believed that the stifling Florida heat may have played a factor in Duke's loss to Miami.
"It beat us up a little bit to play at 95 degrees for three straight days," Ashworth said.
Against Florida State (9-12, 2-9) Friday, the Blue Devils made quick work of the Seminoles. They swept the doubles point and won the first two singles matches in straight sets. Although Robinson lost her match at the fifth flight, Deltour secured Duke's 4-1 victory by winning the last two sets of her match, completing a come-from-behind win over Whitney Eber at the sixth spot.
Both Duke and Miami, along with No. 12 Georgia Tech, completed ACC play with identical 9-2 records to finish in a three-way tie for first place in the conference. Seedings for the ACC Championships, which begins Thursday in Cary, will be released today.
Ashworth said he does not think the loss will crack the confidence his squad has exhibited throughout its five-match winning streak.
"We had a good chance to win the ACC outright this week and we didn't do it, but we have a chance to [win the ACC Championship] this week," Ashworth said. "I think we'll be fine. We've done a really good job all year coming back after losses."
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