Duke went into the ACC tournament this weekend looking to win its 12th ACC tournament championship in the last 17 years, but came up empty-handed after falling at the first hurdle.
The No. 13 Blue Devils (15-9, 8-3 in the ACC) fell in the quarterfinals to No. 19 Florida State (17-9, 6-5) by a score of 4-2 Friday at Cary Tennis Park.
"[The Seminoles] played well, but we just didn't play well and lost the doubles point, so that made it more difficult," freshman Dylan Arnould said.
In the previous meeting between the two teams this season March 30 at Ambler Tennis Stadium, Duke cruised in doubles play and survived tough competition in singles play en route to a 5-2 win.
Beginning with doubles play, Friday's match went quite differently. While Florida State's top-seeded duo of Jonathas Sucupira and Sam Chang remained together, the team's two other doubles pairs switched partners. In addition, Sucupira and Chang played as the one seed in Cary, whereas they had been the second seed in Durham.
These decisions by Seminoles head coach Dwayne Hultquist worked to perfection, as Duke's David Goulet and Joey Atas, the tenth-ranked doubles team in the nation, were beaten by a score of 8-5. FSU also won the second-seeded match to earn the doubles point.
"Their lineup was a little different," Arnould said. "They had one guy who had been hurt who was playing, and one guy who had been playing before who was hurt now, so the matchups were different all around."
The Blue Devils responded well early in singles play, as Goulet dispatched of FSU's fifth seed in straight sets to tie the score at 1-1, but that was as close as Duke would get.
The Seminoles jumped out to a 3-2 lead, and FSU's top seed Ytai Abougzir defeated the Blue Devils' Kiril Dimitrov to clinch the match for the Seminoles.
Top-seeded Virginia defeated second seed North Carolina for the conference title Sunday.
Duke's conference season ended Friday, but the team will begin play in the NCAA tournament May 11 or 12. The Blue Devils will be seeded along with all other teams in the field May 1, and now have almost three weeks to rest and prepare.
"I think it will be good to rest for a few days, but we'll get back to working out hard before NCAAs and I think we'll be sharp," Arnould said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.