With the ACC tournament just one week away, the final two conference matches will be crucial in order for Duke to extend its reign of the ACC for the sixth week in a row and to secure a top seeding going into the tournament.
The No. 1 Blue Devils, who boast a 13-match win streak, will head to Clemson, S.C., to take on the Tigers Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center before traveling to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech Saturday at noon.
Although Duke (21-1, 11-1 in the ACC) has maintained a perfect record at home, the atmosphere of the Clemson courts will provide a challenging test for the Blue Devils on the road.
“The stands are right on top of the courts. It’s a really small, I guess you’d say intimate facility,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “There’s not a lot of space. There’s not a lot of separation from players to fans, and also they’re good. They’re really good.”
Going into the match with the mindset that No. 17 Clemson (18-5, 10-2) represents a very real threat to the Duke winning streak will be an important factor in securing a Blue Devil win Thursday.
“We can’t walk on the court without respecting our opponent,” Ashworth said. “The other thing is to be prepared for a long match. We’re trying to put ourselves in a good position for the ACC tournament next week and this is one of the last steps in that process.”
Currently, Duke sits atop the conference along with North Carolina and Virginia, with each team only suffering one conference loss. A win Thursday against the Tigers will help strengthen the team’s position going into the tournament.
The first step to a Blue Devil victory will be to set the tone early with a doubles win. While the team has glided through its last 12 conference matches without dropping a doubles point, the Tigers present a powerful doubles lineup, highlighted by the No. 18 duo of Beatrice Gumulya and Vana Koroleva.
“We’ve had pretty good success with our doubles, but we can’t be complacent and can’t be satisfied with it,” Ashworth said. “So we’re trying to be more aggressive, trying to take the net away from our opponents and put ourselves in a more aggressive position on the court. Really nothing new, just trying to get better at what we do well.”
The Blue Devils’ singles lineup features fifth-ranked Beatrice Capra, No. 24 Ester Goldfeld and No. 35 Hannah Mar, who secured her 10th conference win after overpowering Boston College’s Katya Vasilyev 6-1, 6-2 Friday.
The Blue Devils are 26-20 head-to-head against the Tigers, but Clemson boasts ranked players of its own, with No. 31 Romy Kölzer entering the match on an 11-match win streak, and No. 47 Koroleva.
The Yellow Jackets (11-7, 8-4) will host Duke as the final contest of a four-game homestand. Georgia Tech shut out both Pittsburgh and Syracuse 7-0 in the first two matches, and will host North Carolina Thursday looking to improve on a three-match winning streak.
Although it can be easy to become complacent after sitting at No. 1 for five weeks in a row, Duke will look to take it one point at a time and focus on the task at hand.
“Mentally we have to approach it like a championship match,” Ashworth said. “We have to be focused and have to expect the best from them, which is what we hope we get too.”
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