With their three-game road trip behind them, the Blue Devils rediscovered themselves at home as they returned to the court without a roof above their heads.
After struggling through much of the indoor season, Duke changed its fortunes with a change of scenery Saturday, shutting out North Carolina A&T and Charlotte in a double-header at Ambler Tennis Stadium. Balanced outings in doubles and singles play helped the Blue Devils notch two long-awaited 7-0 victories, mixing some fresh faces into the lineup to great success.
“For starters, we competed better. It all starts with that,” Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “We got everyone’s best effort from the very beginning, all of a sudden leading to us playing better tennis. I think the first match was good for us to give us some confidence and I think we carried that over into the second match.”
Duke (4-6) took the doubles point in both matchups and kept up the momentum with solid execution in the singles. Against the Aggies (0-6), all six Duke players wrapped up their singles matches in two sets, getting off the courts quickly. Four of those sets ended with 6-0 shutouts—including a 6-0, 6-0 win for freshman Catalin Mateas on court two—and no set was closer than 6-2. Charlotte brought more energy and tenacity in the afternoon, but the Blue Devils stayed in complete control throughout for their second win of the day.
In the first meeting against North Carolina A&T (0-6) in program history, Smith maintained most of the doubles lineups from Duke's last outing—a 5-2 loss at Vanderbilt—but paired freshman Vincent Lin with Mateas. The changed paid off instantly, as Lin and Mateas cruised to a 6-0 win against Kyle Scott and Brett Caban. The other two Blue Devil tandems—sophomore captain Nicolas Alvarez and freshman Ryan Dickerson on court one and freshman Jason Lapidus and senior Daniel McCall on court three—had no trouble either, each claiming a 6-0 victory and claiming a 1-0 lead for Duke less than 20 minutes into the contest.
When singles play began, not much changed. On court six, Duke sophomore Andrew DeJoy impressed his former instructor—current Aggie head coach Richard Akande—with a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Arnau Arimon. No. 17 Alvarez's win at first singles clinched the win for the Blue Devils, and a 6-1, 6-2 victory for McCall assured Duke the shutout heading into the afternoon session against the 49ers (1-1).
Lin and Mateas stayed hot in doubles, opening up a 2-0 lead. One of the match's highlights came in the second game, when Lin managed to sprint to the net and return a strong shot from 49er junior Josh Aubrey right before the ball hit the ground. After trailing 3-1, Aubrey and redshirt senior Carl Solik attacked the Blue Devils at the net and closed the deficit to one game, but the Duke freshmen found their rhythm again in the next three frames and sealed the game at 6-2.
On court three, McCall and Lapidus nursed a tight 3-2 lead into the sixth game. Regrouped after the set break, the Blue Devils hit the ball with more control and took the match 6-2 after a double-fault from Charlotte.
With the doubles point already decided in Duke's favor, all eyes shifted to court one, where Alvarez, and Dickerson came out aggressively to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Alvarez threw the 49er pairing of Vikram Hundal and J. Massalle Ferrer off balance with his quick serve, and Dickerson delivered deadly blows at the net. But soon the Blue Devils fell victim to sloppy play, and the Charlotte duo capitalized to drag the game into a tiebreaker. Alvarez and Dickerson trailed as 4-2 in the tiebreak, but rediscovered their form in the next few rallies and ended the drama with a 7-5 win.
“It was a tough situation especially because we were up a break during the set, so they came back strong,” Alvarez said. “But Ryan really helped me with the attitude when we were down. He didn’t stop believing in us as a team, and we played a couple of points [and] we were able to close it out in the end. It was the attitude that helped us win the match.”
In singles, Duke quickly snatched two more points thanks to strong performances by Mateas on court two and Dickerson on court five. Both freshmen ran away from their opponents, notching 6-2, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-1 victories, respectively.
But the 49ers turned the rest of the match into a bumpy ride. On court one, Hundal led Alvarez 3-2 after the Blue Devil won the first set 6-1. The two traded top-spins at the baseline and Hundal led 40-15 in Alvarez’s serve, trying to break the Lima, Peru, native. But the sophomore captain came back to save two break points and tie the set, 3-3. Alvarez fought all the way back to claim a 6-4 victory, securing the team win for Duke.
The remaining three singles were drawn out by intense sequences. On court four, Lin was struggling to hold off Charlotte's Sam Rice with the game tied, 6-6. The two ended up in tiebreaker, which Lin took in a 7-3 decision. The Schaumburg, III., native then dispatched Rice 6-2 in the second frame and pushed the Blue Devils' further ahead on the scoresheet.
In the remaining two matchups, McCall battled to a 6-4, 7-5 victory on court six for his second win of the day, and on court three, freshman Adrian Chamdani split the first two sets against A. Garcia Moreno. Tied 4-4 in the tiebreaker, teammates stood on the sidelines and cheered Chamdani on to a 7-3 victory to complete Duke’s second shutout of the day.
“We haven’t been doing great in the last couple of matches. These matches [today], even though they are not against top 20 or top 30 teams in the country, it still gives us confidence to move forward into the next weekend,” Alvarez said. “We are treating every match as if it were final. I think it’s our main focus now until the end of the season—just treat every match as if it was the last of the season. If we keep doing that, we will end up having good results.”
The Blue Devils will host Coastal Carolina and Furman in another double-header next Saturday.
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