The Blue Devils ascended through the rankings to the second spot in this week's ITA poll, but Virginia Tech was not at all intimidated.
The Hokies came into Sunday’s match already boasting wins against ranked opponents Penn State and Notre Dame, and added another to their belt with an impressive 6-1 victory against No. 2 Duke on the indoor courts at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center in Blacksburg, Va.
Duke claimed the doubles point, but Virginia Tech won all six singles matches en route to a statement win.
“They have a really good team, and they played well, while we did not take advantage of a lot of opportunities," Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. "They played better than us today. All six of their players deserve a lot of credit."
The match started as most matches up to this point in the season have started for Duke, with the Blue Devils (13-2, 0-1 in the ACC) winning the doubles point. Although the tandem of Bruno Semenzato and T.J. Pura fell 8-3 against Virginia Tech’s Edoardo Tessaro and Joao Monteiro, Duke rallied to win the next two contests to grab the 1-0 lead.
Senior Jason Tahir and junior Josh Levine defeated Hunter Koontz and Florian Nicoud 8-4, and freshman Nicolas Alvarez and senior Raphael Hemmeler won their match 8-5 against Americo Contini and Andreas Bjerrehus.
“We started off really well with the doubles,” Smith said. “We played really well at [No.1 and No. 2 doubles], and [Alvarez and Hemmeler] clinched the point for us with a solid win.”
But from there, things went downhill quickly for Duke. The 1-0 lead turned into a 2-1 deficit as Levine was beaten 1-6, 3-6 by Nicoud and Pura fell 6-7, 0-6 to Aaron Gomez.
In the next match to finish, Alvarez—the No. 8 singles player in the nation—was upset by No. 74 Bjerrehus. The Lima, Peru, native lost the first set narrowly, 6-7, after conceding a 4-3 lead, and then fell 4-6 in the second set after he failed to break Bjerrehus’ serve. The loss stopped Alvarez’s team-high five match winning streak, and marks his first loss since moving up to Duke’s No. 1 singles spot back in February.
At No. 4 singles, Semenzato lost 3-6, 6-4, 5-7 to Tessaro, as the Hokie junior climbed out of a 5-3 hole in the third set to top the junior from Sao Paulo, Brazil. No. 99 Hemmeler then lost to Koontz 6-7, 6-4, 3-6 at No. 3 singles, dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, 5-7, before breaking Koontz’s serve in the second set to even the match. The third and decisive set went against the Blue Devil, sealing the match for Virginia Tech (10-1, 2-0).
At No. 2 singles, Tahir lost a down-to-the-wire match against Monteiro by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-7. The senior lost the final set in a tiebreaker by an agonizingly close score of 7-9.
“I thought one, two, and three singles played incredibly well, and they honestly all played extremely well," Smith said. "We had three match points in two of the matches, which we did not win.... [Hemmeler] was in a really good position in his match, as well, and I thought that he was going to win. In a lot of matches, we worked really hard and won a good amount of points, but they just beat us.”
Although, the Blue Devils did not manage to win a singles match, they were competitive throughout, as evidenced by the three three-set losses.
“The final score may have been 6-1, but really it was a lot closer than that," Smith said.
Duke will return to the courts March 15 at home against Miami.
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Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.