Playing under the bright lights of Las Vegas, it was a freshman who came through for Duke.
Making their spring debut at the Freeman Memorial Invitational hosted by UNLV, the Blue Devils won 13 matches over the course of the three-day event with freshman Kaitlyn McCarthy leading the way. The 29th-ranked player in the country, McCarthy won three singles matches and one doubles match.
McCarthy defeated UCLA’s Kyle Phillips 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of singles Friday before taking down Southern California’s Gabby Smith 6-3, 7-6 later that day. In Saturday’s singles quarterfinals, she beat Florida’s Brianna Morgan 6-2, 6-4 before falling to No. 6 Hayley Carter of North Carolina, 4-6, 2-6.
In doubles, McCarthy teamed with teammate Jessica Ho to rout the UNLV pairing of Cristina Moroi and Anna Bogoslavets 6-1 in Saturday’s consolation match-up. The Blue Devils had fallen Friday to the Tar Heel tandem of Carter and Whitney Kay 6-2.
Senior Beatrice Capra—ranked No. 28 in the country—and sophomores Rebecca Smaller and Samantha Harris all won their initial singles matches of the tournament Friday. Capra defeated the Rebels' Aiwen Zhu 6-4, 6-3 before losing by default to Florida’s Spencer Liang. Smaller beat Moroi 6-2, 6-3 but lost hours later to Carter 1-6, 1-6. Harris took down Stanford’s Paulette Wolak 6-1, 6-3 Friday and then won a Saturday match against UCLA’s Kristin Wiley by the same score.
Junior Chalena Scholl and sophomore Alyssa Smith dropped their opening doubles match Friday against the No. 4 pairing of Gabby Smith and Giuliana Olmos of Southern California, 3-6. But the duo bounced back to win their doubles consolation match Saturday against UNLV’s Paola Artiga and Mercedes Lopez 6-2.
In other doubles action, Smaller and sophomore Christina Makarova lost to UNLV’s Zhu and Carol Wang 1-6, and Florida’s Morgan and Anna Danilina shut out Capra and Harris.
Makarova, Smith, Ho and Scholl all fell in their opening singles matches of the weekend but rebounded to pick up at least one win. Makarova lost to Florida’s Josie Kuhlman 2-6, 0-6 Friday but beat UNLV’s Moroi 6-2, 6-3 Saturday. Smith beat UNLV’s Bogoslavets by default Friday, sandwiched in between losses to Southern California's Olmos and Stanford’s Caroline Lampl.
Ho and Scholl also ended up 1-2 for the weekend. Ho defeated Southern California's Jessica Failla 7-5, 6-2, and Scholl’s lone victory came against UCLA’s Alaina Miller 6-1, 7-5.
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