Duke headed to Charlottesville, Va., last weekend looking to bring home some hardware for the second year in a row, but returned to Durham empty-handed.
The No. 4 Blue Devils entered the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championships with title aspirations, only to be upset by No. 20 TCU in the first round. The Horned Frogs were unseeded in this year’s tournament but that didn’t stop them from knocking out the defending champions in the biggest upset of the first round.
Duke took the doubles point as Beatrice Capra and Rachel Kahan took care of Simona Parajova and Sofiko Kadzhaya 6-2 while Annie Mulholland and Samantha Harris dispatched Palina Dubavets and Alexis Pereira 6-4. Ester Goldfeld and Alyssa Smith’s match went unfinished.
Head coach Jamie Ashworth decided not to play Capra—the usual No. 1 singles player for Duke—in the singles matches all weekend. This shuffled the lineup and pulled freshman Rebecca Smaller into the number five spot.
The Blue Devils’ 1-0 lead was quickly nullified, as TCU claimed victories on courts two, three and four. Horned Frogs Parajova, Kadzhaya, and Dubavets—all of whom had just lost their doubles matches—got their revenge, defeating Harris, Kahan and Smith, respectively. Smith took the first set 6-3 but proceeded to drop the next two 3-6, 2-6. Harris and Kahan fell in straight sets.
With Duke (4-3) in a hole, it looked as if an upset was imminent. But Smaller and No. 87 Goldfeld came up big in their matches to tie up the score at 3-3. Smaller dropped her first set 4-6 to Seda Arantekin but shook off the nerves and took over the match from there, finishing with convincing 6-0, 6-1 victories in the final two sets. Goldfeld also fell behind early, dropping her first set 2-6 before taking the next two 6-2, 6-4.
All eyes—and the hopes of advancing in the winner's bracket—rested on court six. Mulholland went toe-to-toe against Pereira but ultimately fell 3-6, 7-5, 4-6. With that, TCU (4-3) joined Miami—which upset No. 6 Alabama—as the only unseeded teams to move to the second round.
Things did not get better the rest of the weekend, as the Blue Devils’ woes continued in the consolation bracket. Duke was upended 4-1 by unseeded Vanderbilt Saturday and fell to the Crimson Tide Sunday by the same score.
Against the Commodores (4-2), Duke lost the doubles point after Goldfeld and Smith dropped their match 6-4 on court one to Courtney Colton and Sydney Campbell and Capra and Kahan lost to Ashleigh Antal and Marie Casares 6-3 on court two. Mulholland and Harris knocked off Francis Altick and Astra Sharma 6-3 on court three.
Mulholland would go on to win her second match of the day, beating Georgina Sellyn in singles play 6-4, 6-1. The rest of the team didn’t fare as well. Goldfeld dropped her match against No. 15 Campbell 6-2, 6-1 and Kahan was handled by Altick 6-0, 6-3. Harris fought valiantly but came up short against Colton as she dropped a heartbreaking tiebreaker in the second set, losing 6-4, 7-6 (14-12).
Sunday capped off a disappointing weekend for Duke, as the Blue Devils joined Kentucky—the lowest seed in the tournament—as the only teams to go 0-3.
The lone bright spot of the weekend, Mulhollland and Harris capped off an undefeated three matches of doubles play, knocking off Alabama's Luicelena Perez and Natalia Maynetto 7-5. The other two doubles pairs dropped their matches, giving the Crimson Tide (5-1) a 1-0 lead.
Goldfeld made up for the doubles loss, beating No. 25 Erin Routliffe in impressive 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) fashion, but it was too little, too late. Kahan, Smith, and Smaller all dropped matches in straight sets and left Duke with three disappointing losses in a weekend that went horribly wrong.
The Blue Devils will look to make the necessary adjustments during a long lay-off. Duke next plays at No. 2 Florida Feb. 20.
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