After rolling past Brown 6-1 on Sunday, Duke had less than 24 hours to prepare for a talented Texas A&M team. Fueled by another strong doubles showing and the dominant singles performances of Rachel Kahan and Elizabeth Plotkin, the No. 7 Blue Devils fought through fatigue to win 6-1.
With the win, Duke (4-0) earned a spot in the round-of-16 of the ITA Team Indoor Nationals, to be held Feb. 18-21 at the University of Virginia.
“It’s always good to be pushed a little bit,” senior Ellah Nze said. “We maybe didn’t play our best tennis today, but the fact that we were able to still find a way to win... is a true testament to what we can do.”
The No. 4-ranked doubles team of Nze and senior Nadine Fahoum had little trouble with Janelle Cuthbertson and Christi Liles, breaking Texas A&M (1-2) in its second service game and holding onto the advantage throughout the match. With Nze serving a match point at 7-5, Fahoum delivered a smash winner late in the point that split the two Aggies and secured an 8-5 win for the Blue Devils.
Senior Reka Zsilinszka and freshman Hanna Mar were deadlocked at 6-6 after Mar’s service game was broken by Texas A&M, but Duke won two straight games to win 8-6. Though Mary Clayton and Monica Gorny dropped their match 5-8—the first time the pair has lost at the No. 2 position all year—head coach Jamie Ashworth was pleased to see his team contend with quality opposition.
“It’s going to take a good effort for someone to beat us two out of three doubles matches,” Ashworth said. “I think today was the first time we’ve had pressure on us in doubles.... But we needed to be put in those situations.”
In singles play, Kahan snatched Duke’s second point of the match at a blistering pace, dispatching an overmatched Cuthbertson 6-1, 6-0. Plotkin breezed through her match with Christi Potgieter as well, punishing Potgieter with her forehand to the tune of a 6-2, 6-3 win.
With the Blue Devils up 3-0 and Mar in complete control of her singles match, up 5-1 with a set in hand, it looked like Duke was cruising toward its third win of the year, but Sheri Olivier broke Mar’s serve and sparked an Aggie rally. Inspired by Olivier’s resistance on the adjacent court, Liles won consecutive games against Nze and had a chance to push the match to three sets. Meanwhile, Duke’s No. 25 Fahoum struggled against No. 17 Nazari Urbina after winning the first set 6-2.
Fahoum lost control of her serve early in the second set and double-faulted twice in a single game to drop to 1-3. Unable to place the ball with both her forehand and backhand and visibly shaken, Fahoum dropped the second set 3-6.
Mar closed out Olivier 6-4, however, and the Blue Devils began to rebound. With the overall win already in hand, Nze stormed back from 3-5 down to win 7-5, notching her 100th career victory in the process. Fahoum jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage in the tiebreaker, but Urbina won 8 consecutive points and handed Fahoum her fourth singles loss of the year.
“We got up on people and we let them hang around,” Ashworth said, “It’s a learning process, [but we have to understand] that if you’re up a set and 2-0, people aren’t going to give you the match.”
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