The Blue Devils finished a solid week by recording three victories, but just missed out on the opportunity to capture their biggest win of the season.
No. 23 Duke delivered wins over Princeton, Tennessee and Virginia but stumbled against No. 2 Notre Dame in a hard-fought 4-3 match.
"We beat who we were supposed to beat ranking-wise," said head coach Jamie Ashworth. "We couldn't beat the one team that we had a great opportunity to. We did a great job of giving ourselves a chance with Notre Dame, and it was the best fight we had all year."
Freshman Amanda Granson and sophomore Melissa Mang were perfect on the week at the fourth and second singles spots, respectively. Mang improved her singles record to 9-1 in dual matches this season.
In the March 10 match against No. 49 Virginia at Ambler Tennis Stadium, Duke claimed the doubles point to set the pace. Sophomore Jessi Robinson and freshman Elizabeth Plotkin combined for an 8-3 victory at the No. 2 doubles spot, and senior Daniela Bercek and Mang posted an 8-2 win at the top position to secure the point.
A three-match singles sweep clinched Duke its 6-1 victory. Bercek won 6-1, 6-4 at the top spot, while Mang swept her opponent at the second position. Granson put up a 6-4, 6-0 win to secure the comfortable victory for the Blue Devils.
Duke then traveled to California for its next three matches.
In Wednesday's contest, the Blue Devils again clinched the doubles point on their way to a 6-1 win over No. 19 Tennessee at the Barnes Tennis Center. In singles action, Duke took five out of six matches.
The Blue Devils met a hitch in their streak Thursday at the Barnes Tennis Center against the Fighting Irish.
Bercek and Mang continued their roll with an 8-3 win over the fifth-ranked duo of Christian and Catrina Thompson, but the Fighting Irish took the next two matches to seize the doubles point.
"That was our biggest win," Mang said. "We just played really smart and aggressive."
The Blue Devils responded by taking three of the first five singles matches to knot the match at three. But Notre Dame's Cosmina Ciobanu, the 31st-ranked player in the nation, pulled out a 7-5 third set to take down Tory Zawacki at the fifth singles position to close out the victory for the Fighting Irish.
The Blue Devils took out any frustration they had over the missed opportunity on their next opponent, shutting down No. 60 Princeton Saturday at the Barnes Tennis Center to improve to 7-3 on the season. The Blue Devils cleaned out the Tigers with a sweep of the doulbes matches and six straight singles wins to notch a 7-0 victory.
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