Facing a familiar foe in a tough road test, Duke aimed to gain momentum heading into the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
The No. 10 Blue Devils (7-0) passed with flying colors, dominating the No. 20 Volunteers (4-3) en route to a 6-1 road victory in Knoxville, Tenn. Having lost to Tennessee two times last season, including a loss in the semifinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships last year, Duke looked for retribution this year.
“It was definitely nice to get some revenge,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “They beat us 7-0 at our place. That was one of the matches that really hurt last year.”
Starting off the match, the Blue Devils earned the doubles point, winning all three doubles matches to gain a 1-0 advantage. It was particularly significant because they lost the doubles point in their last two matches against the Volunteers.
“It was huge and it set the tone of the match,” Smith said. “All three doubles teams came out and played extremely well and got the match going.”
At No. 3 doubles, Torsten Wietoska and freshman Raphael Hemmeler clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 victory after David Holland and Chris Mengel gave the Blue Devils an early advantage at No. 2 doubles, winning 8-6. In the final doubles match the No. 1 duo of Henrique Cunque and Fred Saba beat 33rd-ranked Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese.
In singles play, 17th-ranked Mengel and freshman Jason Tahir helped give Duke an early 3-0 lead. Mengel, after going down 3-1 in the first set, won 11 of the next 12 games to win 6-3, 6-1, while Tahir cruised to a straight sets victory, 6-2, 6-1.
Building upon his teammates victories, Wietoska started strong and had another clinching victory for the Blue Devils, winning comfortably over Jarryd Chaplin, 6-2, 6-4 to give Duke the match win.
“I am happy to help out the team and get two victories,” Wietoska said. “[But] it was more important for me to win the match for the team than for myself.”
Not to be outdone, 7th-ranked Henrique Cunha, Duke’s No. 1 singles player and the reigning ACC player of the week, won minutes after Wietoska to give Duke a 5-0 lead.
The singles play finished with two three-set matches. Hemmeler, after losing his first set of the season in dual match play, persevered in a super-tiebreaker while Fred Saba was not as fortunate as he lost his super-tiebreaker to provide the final 6-1 tally.
The strong showing in singles and doubles against Tennessee gave Duke its best start to the season in over 50 years and provided confidence going into the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, where the Blue Devils play No. 8 UCLA in the opening round.
“The Tennessee match was one of our better all-around matches of the season,” Smith said. “Anytime you are winning and winning consistently like we have the last couple of weeks, you feel confident. I like how we are improving and we are going to look to make a couple more improvements before we play UCLA.”
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