In what might be a preview of a soon-to-come ACC Tournament semifinal, the No. 20 Blue Devils host No. 19 North Carolina Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Ambler Tennis Stadium in Duke’s final home match of the season.
The Blue Devils (14-6, 7-1 in the ACC) and the Tar Heels (16-4, 6-2) currently sit in second and third place in the conference, respectively, behind ACC leader Virginia, the No. 1 team in the nation. With the Cavaliers in pole position to earn the ACC tournament’s top seed in two weekends, Duke and North Carolina are both hoping for a rematch with Virginia. And if the current standings hold, Duke and North Carolina would meet in the ACC tournament semifinals for the right to face the Cavaliers with a championship on the line.
Right now, though, the focus isn’t on the postseason, but on finishing off the regular season on a hot streak, as both teams enter Tuesday’s meeting on three-match winning streaks.
Since losing to the Cavaliers by a single point April 4, Duke has been on a roll. The Blue Devils gutted out a road win at Wake Forest and held serve at home against Georgia Tech, the ACC’s fourth-place team, and beat Clemson as well.
The match against the Yellow Jackets represented something of a breakthrough for the Blue Devils. Duke has had trouble closing out opponents all year—the Blue Devils have taken leads into singles play several times only to lose late, and have also suffered two 4-3 reverses—but Duke was able to close out Georgia Tech, 4-3, after a late surge from senior Dylan Arnould.
“We came out after the break, we got the boys fired up and the team came out really hot in the first set and kind of changed the momentum of the match,” assistant coach Josh Goffi said. “The momentum swung completely to our side.... It showed the resilience of our team, and that’s kind of a model win.”
Duke can expect a similar challenge Tuesday in a match head coach Ramsey Smith said “was going to be a battle.”
The Tar Heels had an easier time against the Yellow Jackets in their last match, winning 5-2, and boast a deep, talented roster. Their top doubles team, the 17th-ranked Clay Donato and Stefan Hardy, should prove to be a quality opponent for Duke’s dominant duo of Henrique Cunha and Reid Carleton. A deep North Carolina singles order adds even more significance to that doubles point.
Duke, though, can go into the doubles matches confident. For one, Cunha and Carleton have won 15 consecutive matches together. In addition, in their only previous meeting with Donato and Hardy—in the ITA Carolina Regionals, a tournament held in October as part of the leadup to the team season—Cunha and Carleton took down the Tar Heel pairing, 8-5.
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