After finishing the 2014 season ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Duke women’s tennis team opened its 2014-2015 season this weekend, as freshmen Samantha Harris and Rebecca Smaller made their debut performances.
Blue Devil men’s tennis— which finished No. 14 in the nation last year—also opened its season this weekend, as freshman Nicolas Alvarez hit the court in a Duke uniform for the first time.
The three-day Duke Fab Four Invite was held at the Cary Tennis Center from Friday Sept. 12 to Sunday Sept. 14. The tournament consisted of three separate singles draws of 16 players and three separate doubles draws of eight teams in both women’s and men’s play.
“We played pretty well, but not the best that we could play,” women’s head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “It was good to see two of our three freshmen play. It also showed we have a lot of work to do in the next two weeks.”
Facing a grueling test of endurance, senior Ester Goldfeld was unable to complete her third-place match in the white bracket—her seventh match in three days—due to an upper-leg injury. After struggling to keep up with Florida’s Josie Kuhlman while in visible discomfort, she withdrew from the match after dropping the first set 6-2.
With Goldfeld out of commission, the Blue Devils’ focus turned to their underclassmen.
Smaller ran into trouble in the black bracket, losing her first two matches, but she finished the weekend with a 7-6 (7), 6-2 victory against Furman’s Karlee Bryde for her first win as a Blue Devil. To round out her weekend, Harris fought for a hard-earned 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-4 victory against Alabama’s Danielle Spielmann. After losing her opening match, sophomore Alyssa Smith won two matches before falling in the consolation final of the blue bracket.
Duke decided to switch things up when doubles play came around, as two freshmen paired with older members of the squad. Goldfeld and Harris took fourth in the blue bracket, and the team of Smith and Smaller fell in the consolation finals of the white bracket. Redshirt senior Rachel Kahan joined forces with Virginia’s Marie Faure to take third place in the black bracket.
“We wanted to see a few different combinations [in doubles],” Ashworth said. “One of the things we like to use our fall for is to figure out what’s the best doubles combinations for the spring. Tournaments like this give us some opportunities to do that.”
The men’s team was led by Alvarez, who lost in the semifinals of the black bracket but went on to defeat Wake Forest’s Sam Bloom 6-3, 6-4 to take third place and avenge his teammate’s loss. Bloom bested Duke’s second-seeded Raphael Hemmeler the day prior in a three-set contest, but Hemmeler would go on to beat Louisville’s Jeffrey Brown 6-3, 6-4 to claim fifth. Brown handed Blue Devil Daniel McCall a first-round loss Friday, but McCall would bounce back and win the black bracket’s consolation final with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against William and Mary’s Will Juggins.
In the blue bracket, Cole Hammond and Chris Mengel each picked up a win before falling in the quarterfinals. Blue Devil junior Bruno Semenzato, the white bracket’s one-seed, won three matches without dropping a set before falling to Kentucky’s Beck Pennington in the final.
In doubles, Hammond and McCall took third in the black bracket, Semenzato and Alvarez claimed second place in the blue bracket and in the white bracket, Mengel and Hemmeler secured Duke’s only outright bracket victory of the weekend with a tight 8-7 (5) win against the Kentucky duo of Lopez and Pennington.
The men return to action Sept. 27 at the first qualifying round of the ITA All-American Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. The women next play Sept. 27 at the nine-day Riviera All-American Tournament in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The Blue Devils will look to build on this weekend’s performance in their upcoming tournaments.
“I don’t think our competitive fire was where it needed to be,” Ashworth said. “I told them afterwards that we can always control [the competitive fire], whether we’re playing well or not. We have to do a better job of being excited to be out there on the court the next time we play in two weeks in California.”
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