No. 6 Duke competed with the best, and this time, the Blue Devils weren't enough.
No. 1 Northwestern topped Duke 4-3 Saturday in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship quarterfinals in Madison, Wis. The loss was Duke's first setback of the season.
Sophomore Reka Zsilinszka tied the match at three at No. 3 singles, taking her match in straight sets.
At fifth singles, senior Melissa Mang dropped the first set and stormed back to even the match with a 6-3 victory in the second set. With an upset of the top-ranked team riding on her racquet, Mang finally gave up a break to lose 7-5 in the deciding match.
Northwestern took the doubles points by sweeping all three matches, 8-5, 8-6 and 9-7.
But the Blue Devils immediately made up the slack in singles competition, with junior Amanda Granson winning easily in straight sets at fourth singles. Sophomore Ellah Nze took a three-set win at No. 2 singles, keeping her singles record in dual matches undefeated.
At first singles, freshman Mallory Cecil won the first set against top-ranked Maria Mosolova, who rallied back to take the second and third sets, 6-2 and 6-3, respectively.
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