It was Senior Day at Ambler Stadium yesterday, and while Nadine Fahoum has spent a relatively short amount of four-year career playing at Duke, the senior made the most of the occasion.
At the No. 1 singles spot, Fahoum won her first set 7-6, then took the second set in dominating fashion 6-1, propelling No. 4 Duke (20-2, 9-0 in the ACC) to a 5-2 win over No. 12 Georgia Tech (11-8, 4-5). While Fahoum had entered the weekend having lost seven of her last 11 matches, she won two meet-clinching matches Saturday and Sunday, taking the deciding point against both No. 11 Clemson (17-8, 5-4) and the Yellow Jackets.
“It’s great for her and the rest of the team to see that she can win matches at the one,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “The win [against Clemson] was one of the best wins she’s had in college.”
Fahoum made her mark early in Sunday’s contest, helping win a doubles point that has become increasingly difficult for the Blue Devils to take in recent weeks.
After Georgia Tech’s Jillian O’Neill and Caroline Lilley defeated Rachel Kahan and Ellah Nze 8-4, Monica Gorny and Mary Clayton topped Viet Ha Ngo and Sasha Krupina 8-6, and the doubles point came down to Fahoum and Hanna Mar. The Blue Devils went up 8-7 thanks to a Fahoum winner to the opposite court. Then, in the ensuing game, Mar and her Yellow Jacket opponent traded ground strokes on a long rally, before Fahoum was able to cut the ball off at the net and hit a drop shot winner to give Duke the 9-7 victory.
“Whenever we play Georgia Tech, it’s always a close match,” Ashworth said. “I knew that we had to grind out some matches and some points in the matches, and I thought we did a good job with that.”
In singles play, the Blue Devils did not find much trouble against Georgia Tech. Sophomore Clayton was first off the court with an easy 6-4, 6-2 win. Kahan wasn’t far behind her, topping Krupina 6-4, 6-3. The freshman still has not lost a singles match in the spring.
After Fahoum gave Duke its 12th straight win, the stage was set for the other seniors to play out their final career regular season matches at Ambler. Elizabeth Plotkin fell 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-3), then Reka Zsilinszka won after a battle with Ha Ngo on court two.
Zsilinszka easily won the first set 6-1, but the second set would be a different story. The Blue Devil went down 3-2, tied it up, then lost two straight games. Then, taking advantages of a few mistakes from her opponent, Zsilinszka won three straight to go up 6-5. She would cap her comeback two games later, winning the match 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).
Nze wasn’t as successful in her match, looking visibly frustrated at times en route to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss.
Despite the different levels of success, though, Ashworth was proud of his four-year players after their meet Sunday.
“They’ve meant so much for their program, on the court, off the court, helping build the foundation of where we are now,” Ashworth said. “We’ve got a great group coming in and it’s because of the four years they gave us.”
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