Duke women's tennis sweeps Elon

As the old adage goes, there’s no place like home.

Playing on its home courts at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center for the first time this season, No. 16 Duke dominated Elon 7-0 in its first dual match of the season. After a stellar weekend performance at the Freeman Memorial in Las Vegas, freshman Kaitlyn McCarthy was again the standout player for the Blue Devils. McCarthy, ranked No. 29 in the country, swept Phoenix sophomore Olivia Lucas 6-0, 6-0 in their singles matchup, and she joined with sophomore Samantha Harris to defeat Elon’s duo of Natalia Janowicz and Kirsten Ward in doubles, 6-1.

“[McCarthy] can really be as good as she wants to be,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “What holds her back now is trying to get outside her comfort zone and trying to do things that necessarily she’s not comfortable with, but hopefully down the road she will be. If she can do that, then she can play with anyone in the country.”

Prior to last weekend’s tournament in Las Vegas, the Blue Devils (1-0) had not competed since early November. Throw in a winter break that ran a week longer than normal, and there was the possibility for a sluggish start to the spring season.

But McCarthy showed no signs of rust Wednesday.

“I feel like I got back into it pretty quickly considering I didn’t hit a whole ton over break, but I was working out,” McCarthy said. “I was trying to get more physical over break as opposed to trying to work on my game, and I think that’s showing in the first bit of the season.”

Playing against the Phoenix (0-2) in their first dual match as Blue Devils, freshmen McCarthy, Jessica Ho and Ellyse Hamlin all quickly made the adjustment and cruised to victories as Ashworth utilized a lineup that gave senior Beatrice Capra the day off.

Ho and Hamlin played key roles in securing the win. The two helped Duke clinch the doubles point with a 6-0 shutout win against Elon’s Lucas and Suzanne Zenoni. Ho later won in singles, clinching the contest for Duke with a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Janowicz at fourth singles.

“I was a little bit worried,” Ashworth said. “It’s a little bit different experience than playing a regular match—[a] different mindset, different kind of pressure, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We’re definitely the better team, a more talented team than Elon is, but I figured we’d have some nervous first sets and play better in the second, but surprisingly our freshmen handled themselves pretty well.”

Duke junior Chalena Scholl also had a successful afternoon. Ranked No. 79 in the country, Scholl dispatched Zenoni 6-3, 6-1. Redshirt freshman Christina Makarova took down Kamilla Beisenova 6-4, 6-1, and junior Alyssa Smith battled back from a first set defeat to beat Elon’s Taylor Casey 3-6, 6-3, 1-0.

Harris’ singles match was the last to finish on the afternoon. Having already won the first set against Elon’s Erica Braschi and leading 5-2 in the second, Harris lost four straight games and ended up losing the set in the tiebreak before bouncing back to win a 10-point third set.

“She grinded it out,” Ashworth said. “She wasn’t feeling great. To be honest, I had no intention of playing her before the match started, but she wanted to play singles. She kind of took one for the team there being on the court, and she did a good job of fighting back. She was up in the second set, had some opportunities to close it out and didn’t. She could have easily gone the other way, but she was a good competitor there at the end and did a good job of fighting through and winning that tiebreaker.”

Scholl and Smith trailed Elon’s Casey and Braschi 1-5 in doubles, but their match was abandoned after Duke clinched the doubles point with its other two wins.

The Blue Devils will be back in action Friday in the first round of the ITA Kickoff, seeking a spot in the National Team Indoors Championships. Duke takes on Portland at 1:30 p.m. in Durham, with the winner advancing to face either Florida State or Mississippi State.