It was a disappointing end to a successful weekend. After defeating two ranked teams en route to the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships, including an upset of the two-time defending champion No. 2 Southern California, Duke fell in the semifinals Sunday to No. 3 Tennessee.
The weekend began brightly for the No. 15 Blue Devils (9-3) after they took a closely-fought victory over the Trojans 4-3, with three of those points coming in three setters. Duke then faced Florida and recorded a comfortable win 4-1.
In the semifinals, the Blue Devils faced a Volunteers (9-0) team that demolished Duke 7-0 a week earlier in Durham. Although the Blue Devils were able to put points on the board in this meet, Tennessee was still too strong and pulled out a 4-2 win, ending Duke’s run in the tournament.
“I’m disappointed to lose, especially since we were right in the match,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “But overall when you look at the full weekend... when you look at the big picture, this was a huge stride for the program.”
This tournament was dubbed by Smith as the second biggest of the season, and in an event of such magnitude, Smith believed there was one player who stood out from the whole field. That player was senior Reid Carleton.
Carleton was undefeated throughout the weekend. He won two of three doubles matches paired with Cunha, with the third left unfinished at 6-6. His singles play was even more impressive—Carleton defeated three ranked players, dropping only one set, but most importantly, he won the clinching match that put Duke over the Trojans. Facing match point and down 5-3 in the second set against Southern California’s Daniel Nguyen, Carleton forced a tie-breaker and took control from there, winning the tie-breaker 7-3. He would go on to take the final set 6-3.
“Reid Carleton was amazing,” Smith said. “At this level, with this competition, it was an incredible feat. He’s our team MVP.”
Smith also had praise for Cunha, who along with Carleton was able to avenge his Feb. 12 loss against the Volunteers. Cunha defeated the nation’s No. 1 player, Rhyne Williams, in straight sets to bounce back from three consecutive defeats, a slide which began with his defeat to Williams the previous weekend.
“I was really proud of how he was able to regroup and pick himself up,” Smith said.
With the team following the lead of the captains, this mental toughness and fight was something that Smith was extremely proud of from all of his players.
“It was a great team display of resilience and toughness,” Smith said. “I could go down the line and every single player did something impressive.”
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