Just after Stephen Amritraj won his No. 6 singles match, the scoreboard showed that the Blue Devils led, 3-0, but they were far from finishing off their rivals from Chapel Hill.
The 12th-ranked Tar Heels (21-3, 6-3 in the ACC) led three of the four remaining matches, and Jonathan Stokke, the only Blue Devil leading his match at the time, trailed 5-4 in the second set.
"I've seen enough tennis to know you're not comfortable until the end," Duke head coach Jay Lapidus said. "Things were very hairy, very close there. It could have easily gone the other direction."
Joey Atas' performance in his final two sets, however, ensured the 4-3 Duke victory. The junior bounced back from a first-set tiebreaker loss to take the No. 4 singles match 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1, and clinch the win for Duke.
"I thought [Stokke] was going to win his match, so I didn't relax really, but my mind wasn't 100 percent there," Atas said. "But after he started getting tight on his serve, then I was like, 'Alright, I've got to finish this match.' I really stepped up my game in the second and third sets."
The Blue Devils (16-5, 8-1) defeated North Carolina Wednesday at Ambler Stadium, despite losses from seniors Stokke and Ludovic Walter at the top two singles spots. With the win-the team's eighth over a top-25 team this season-Duke sets up a potential de facto ACC championship with Virginia Sunday.
The Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. The No. 1 pair of Atas and Stokke upset the Tar Heels top duo, sixth-ranked Raian Luchici and Brad Pomeroy, 8-4. Duke's second pair, Amritraj and Peter Rodrigues, secured the doubles point with an 8-5 victory before the Tar Heels took the No. 3 doubles match in a tiebreaker.
Rodrigues started off Duke's singles effort with a dominating 6-1, 6-3 win, improving his dual singles record to an impressive 19-1. Amritraj also won, 6-1, 6-3, before freshman Kiril Dimitrov fell at the No. 5 spot, increasing the pressure on Atas. In front of a near-capacity crowd, the Ohio State transfer sealed the win to cap off his first Duke-UNC experience.
"Before today, I didn't really realize how big the rivalry was between UNC and Duke, just because its my first year," Atas said. "But as soon as we walked out, I noticed the atmosphere and I just got really pumped up for it."
Walter, who is ranked fourth in the nation and set the school record for career wins April 7, fell to No. 18 Luchici in two closely fought sets, 7-6 (3), 7-5. Luchici broke Walter's serve late in both sets, and fought off three break points in the final game to complete the upset.
"He had about four set points in the first set, and if he wins that set maybe things change around, but when he lost that set the other guy got a lot of confidence," Lapidus said. "Ludo capitalizes on those opportunities probably 90 to 95 percent of the time, but today he just couldn't close it out."
With the victory, Duke ties North Carolina at 10 in the Carlyle Cup, a year-long athletic competition between the two schools.
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