The only thing hotter than the weather Wednesday afternoon was the Blue Devils as No. 21 Duke burnt No. 20 N.C. State for a 5-2 victory.
The Blue Devils (9-6, 2-1 in the ACC) started strong and never let up as they took down the Wolfpack (16-5, 1-3) at home in Ambler Stadium.
"We're playing better and better," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "We're a little young, but we're starting to come into our own."
Duke took control of the contest early as the Blue Devils won the first two matches to win the doubles point.
Sophomore Kiril Dimitrov and senior Peter Rodrigues came back from a 4-1 deficit to defeat Andre Iriarte and Christian Welte 8-4 for the first doubles point. Junior David Goulet and senior Joey Atas won their match 8-4 to clinch the doubles point for Duke.
"It was big for us to win the doubles point," Rodrigues said. "They're a really deep team, so it was huge for us to start well."
The Blue Devils continued to keep their momentum rolling into singles play.
Playing side-by-side on courts No. 1, 2 and 3, Rodrigues, Atas, and Dimitrov all coasted to win their respective first sets 6-1. In the shortest match of the day, Rodrigues looked especially sharp in his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Jay Weinacker. Atas then went on to win 6-1, 6-1 against Cavaday while Dimitrov bested Noblitt 6-1, 6-2 to collectively put the Blue Devils ahead 4-0 and seal the win.
"It was just an accumulation of a couple of good weeks of practice and good matches," Rodrigues said. "This was one of my better matches of the year. [Weinacker]'s a good player, so it was good that I got up early."
Even though Duke had already secured the win, N. C. State refused to leave without a fight as the remaining three singles matches went down to the wire.
Freshman Aaron Carpenter fell 7-5, 6-3 to Iriarte while fellow freshman Dylan Arnould came out on top 7-6, 7-5 over Welte. Both matches, however, ended well before David Goulet's singles battle with David McGee.
After winning the first set 7-5, Goulet continuously traded games with McGee during the highly-contested second set. The junior eventually lost the second set 7-5, setting the stage for the match tiebreaker.
With the crowd and the regular Duke-jersey clad gorilla focusing all of its attention on court No. 4, Goulet battled furiously for the win. While both players traded back-and-forth points to tie the score at 11, Goulet was unable to ultimately to score any more points and fell in the tiebreaker round 13-11.
Wednesday's win-the first game of a six-game conference home stand-gives the Blue Devils a boost as they take on No. 27 Florida State Friday and No. 35 Miami Sunday in Durham.
"The momentum is going in the right direction," Lapidus said. "I feel good."
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