No. 8 Duke did not begin its 2007 road slate well, losing 6-1 to No. 7 Illinois Friday and 6-1 again to No. 11 Notre Dame Sunday.
"The whole weekend was disappointing," assistant coach Ramsey Smith said. "We had a lot of chances but couldn't quite close out sets."
Smith said frustrations in doubles set the tone for both dual matches, as the duo of sophomore Kiril Dimitrov and junior Ned Samuelson pocketed Duke's only doubles win Friday at Illinois' Atkins Tennis Center. The pair defeated GD Jones and Marc Spicijaric 9-8.
The sixth-ranked pair of senior Joey Atas and junior David Goulet lost to top-ranked Kevin Anderson and Ruben Gonzales 8-4, while senior Peter Rodrigues and freshman Dylan Arnould fell to Ryan Rowe and Brandon Davis 8-6.
A disappointed Goulet said the men had difficulty finding their rhythm.
"They came up big in the end," he said. "It was a disappointing match. We lost 6-1, but it was much closer than 6-1."
Duke (2-2) saw only one singles win from 100th-ranked Atas, who took down No. 2 Gonzales, 7-6, 6-4.
"It was a good match," Atas said "It was a crazy atmosphere-everyone was going nuts, and we were just trying to maintain our composure. We had three matches where we could have won and we didn't."
Sunday's match at Notre Dame was also frustrating, Ramsey said.
Atas and Goulet posted Duke's only doubles win over 11th-ranked Ryan Keckley and Sheeva Parbhu, 9-7.
"They were a little bit more intense than us at the start, but we came back and broke them back," Goulet said.
Goulet also served up the team's lone singles victory over Barry King 6-4, 7-6.
"It was a weird match because there weren't any rallies," he said. "It was just really big serves. I was holding my serve pretty easily and he was too, so that's why it went to a tie breaker."
The Blue Devils return home to polish up their game before challenging No. 51 Penn Friday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
Smith said the men have some work cut out for them in practice.
"Our biggest thing is we're going to work on our doubles game," Smith said. "We've been really good with one, but we haven't really been able to win at two or three consistently. We just need to get our doubles going a bit and get our confidence going."
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