No. 9 Duke was one of 16 teams to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship Sunday with a 4-2 win over Ohio State at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The Blue Devils put themselves in a position to qualify for the event in Madison, Wis., with a 6-1 win over Virginia Commonwealth Saturday.
After cruising to an easy win over VCU Friday, the Blue Devils faced a tougher challenge Sunday against the Buckeyes, who made every point a battle.
As it did Saturday, Duke grabbed a 1-0 buffer by winning two of the three doubles matches. The sophomore duo of Reka Zsilinszka and Ellah Nze won their third doubles match of the season after running up a quick 5-1 lead.
"It was very important to win doubles this weekend, because we have two players that are injured, so six people had to play all of the matches," Nze said. "It was really important that we won because we did not have Liz Plotkin and Tara Iyer, and Amanda Granson was sick this weekend. We needed to win the doubles to keep the momentum going into the singles matches."
Granson played through a rough bout of the flu, receiving IV fluids before the match, and the sickness proved too much as she fell 6-4, 6-3 to Ohio State's Julie Blackmore.
But Duke's other players rose to the challenge on the singles side, keeping the Blue Devils afloat in the tournament. Zsilinzska won 6-1, 6-1 at third singles, while Melissa Mang won 6-1, 7-6 at fifth singles. Mallory Cecil, a freshman at first singles, clinched the victory, and Nze led her match before Cecil sealed it.
The Blue Devils face off against Indiana Friday at 4:30 p.m. at home and again Sunday against Princeton at 12 p.m. They travel to Wisconsin Feb. 13.
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