The Blue Devils fended off a late comeback by Texas with a 4-3 victory after racing out to a 3-0 start Sunday, but cannot afford to rest on an early lead as they kick off their slate of conference dual matches.
No. 9 Duke will look to extend its winning streak to four when it welcomes Florida State to Durham Friday at 5 p.m. before taking on No. 13 Miami Sunday at noon. This weekend’s matches are the Blue Devils’ first of 14 against ACC opponents in the next seven weeks.
“We have to play with a ton of energy and a ton of emotion—both the teams we play this weekend do those things really well,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “As we head into conference play, we have to be able to finish all of the matches, especially now that we are playing out all seven matches. It was good to get in more of our conference routine Sunday and hopefully we can build on that.”
The Seminoles (7-2) will hit the courts Friday riding a two-match winning streak after 7-0 and 4-0 shutouts against Navy and Florida A&M last Saturday. The Florida State squad rolled through all six of its singles victories against the Mids in two sets and dropped only five games to the Rattlers on the three courts that decided the match.
Looking to slow the Seminoles’ momentum and build some of their own, the Blue Devils (7-1) will aim to claim the doubles point quickly and put the match out of reach without worrying about the impending showdown with the Hurricanes Sunday.
“We’ve done a good job of staying in the moment with everyone staying in their role, in that moment for the match on that day,” Ashworth said. “I trust our team and that we are mature enough to handle ourselves in that situation.”
With four players ranked in the ITA singles top 100, Miami (4-2, 1-0 in the ACC) can even the overall series record between the two squads at 13-13 with a second win against Duke in as many years.
The Blue Devils' top two singles players—No. 26 Beatrice Capra and No. 28 Kaitlyn McCarthy—will have their hands full on courts one and two against No. 7 Sinead Lohan and No. 8 Stephanie Wagner. Lohan holds a 6-1 record for the spring slate with four wins coming against ranked opponents. Wagner—who frustrated the Blue Devils in their 6-1 loss a year ago with a 7-5, 6-1 defeat of Capra on court one—is undefeated at the top singles spot so far this season.
“Miami is a great team,” Ashworth said. “All the way down [courts] one through six, they play with a ton of emotion and energy. They exert that on you early in the match and try to be the best mental team on court. We have to use the fact that we are at home to our advantage and be mentally tough from the start.”
Sophomore Samantha Harris—the lone Blue Devil to tally a victory against Miami last year—rolled through her singles victory Sunday 6-0, 6-2 and will look to provide the same boost to the Duke squad with a strong start on court four.
On court five, junior Chalena Scholl will look to rebound after falling for the first time since the UNLV Invitational Jan. 15 with a 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 loss against the Longhorns.
The doubles point will be critical to give the Blue Devils a mental edge heading into the tough singles matchups by taking some of the pressure off of Capra and McCarthy.
“If you can get any kind of momentum with the doubles, it makes it that much tougher of a task for the other team,” Ashworth said. “We have confidence that if we get beat in doubles, we can win four singles matches, but to be able to exert pressure on them early would take some [pressure] off our singles players.”
The Hurricanes will also head into Sunday’s match after playing Friday, as they will face No. 6 North Carolina for their second ACC dual.
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