With Winter Storm Jonas arriving overnight, the Blue Devils will have the luxury of playing indoors on the recently resurfaced courts of the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
No. 16 Duke will host Portland, Mississippi State and Florida State Friday and Saturday as a regional site for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The Blue Devils meet the Pilots Friday at 1:30 p.m., with the winner moving on to face the winner of the match between the Bulldogs and Seminoles at 6 p.m. Saturday. The champion of the event advances to the 2016 ITA Indoor Championship in Wisconsin Feb. 5-8.
After opening the season with a commanding 7-0 win over Elon, the Blue Devils continued their winning ways at home, where they have won 90 percent of their contests in the past five years. The pattern continued Wednesday against the Phoenix thanks to the efforts of freshman Kaitlyn McCarthy, who ascended to the No. 29 spot in the ITA Singles rankings and posted a team-high 14 wins during the fall season. Against Elon, McCarthy swept her singles match without losing a game and won her doubles match alongside sophomore Samantha Harris by five games.
Duke leaned heavily on its youth Wednesday, starting McCarthy, classmate Jessica Ho and redshirt freshman Christina Makarova in the singles lineup, with freshman Ellyse Hamlin teaming with Ho on court three during doubles.
That veteran leadership, in the form of senior captain Beatrice Capra, was able to rest in a comfortable victory for the Blue Devils. Capra played sparingly during the fall—winning four of five matches—but remains Duke’s highest ranked player at No. 28 in the ITA Singles rankings. Capra also stands in position to repeat for All-ACC honors after a series of strong performances last season that leave her just 22 matches short of reaching 100 career wins, wins she will attempt to find against surging Mississippi State and Florida State.
A veteran squad, Portland features seven seniors on the 10-woman active roster, and is looking to shake off a loss to start the season at Washington. Both Florida State and Mississippi State are coming to Durham following strong starts to the season—the Seminoles crushed Tulane 6-1 and the Bulldogs collected two shutout victories against Alcorn State, 7-0 and 5-0.
Mississippi State boasts talented freshmen of its own, and Duke will have to prepare for No. 36 Anastasia Rentouli, who has won consecutive matches in straight sets. Florida State boasts the No. 40 doubles pair of seniors Daneika Borthwick and Yukako Noi.
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