After upending No. 3 N.C. State 19-14 in Raleigh Friday to claim its second consecutive ACC dual meet title, Virginia Tech came to Durham to battle Duke on the second leg of its North Carolina road trip.
But instead of another nail-biter, the Hokies feasted on the Blue Devils.
No. 10 Virginia Tech dominated Duke 31-9 at Card Gymnasium Saturday, jumping out to an early 14-0 lead after three weight classes and never looking back. The Hokies' eight ranked grapplers netted them six bonus-point wins—a forfeit, pin and four major decisions—that propelled them to their eighth consecutive win of the season. But despite the tough outing, the Blue Devils took several positives out of their final home match of the season.
“I thought overall it was a pretty good performance by our guys,” Duke head coach Glen Lanham said. “They’re a good team. You’ve got a ton of guys ranked there. I liked the fight in our guys to go out there and compete hard.”
Duke (5-8, 1-4 in the ACC) picked up three wins against Virginia Tech (15-2, 5-0) during the afternoon to lighten up the dismal defeat. No. 10 Mitch Finesilver picked up his 13th consecutive win and team-high 24th victory of the season at 149 pounds, and has not lost since Jan. 2 at the Southern Scuffle.
The sophomore got off to a slow start against Sal Mastriani, but took control by scoring a takedown in the final seconds of the first period en route to the Blue Devils’ first victory of the afternoon, 6-2.
“It’s great to be able to have a winning streak, but honestly, I’m just trying to get better everyday. That’s the goal, and just keep moving forward,” Finesilver said. “I think I need to work on getting to some other attacks. That, and also making a couple of other adjustments on my top game.”
After dropping the 157-pound bout, Duke picked up an upset in the 165-pound weight class. Redshirt junior Jake Faust squared off against No. 12 David McFadden in his second consecutive top-15 matchup and jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead in the first frame. But after an injury timeout stopped the match, McFadden took advantage of the slowed momentum and fought back.
Faust fended off the late rally, though, and held on for a 14-10 decision to improve his ledger against ranked opponents to 5-0. Although Faust suffered two straight losses Jan. 31 against Columbia and American that dropped him out of the top-25, the Bellville, Ohio, native has won four straight matchups—including an upset against No. 9 John Michael Staudenmayer of North Carolina Wednesday in Chapel Hill—and is peaking with the ACC tournament on the horizon in the first week of March.
“It’s just about coming on at the right time of the season,” Faust said. “I kind of fell off. I had a couple of rough matches, but I think coming back strong at the end of the season, that’s what really matters, is ending the season well. You can win all the matches you want in the beginning of the season, but if you can’t do it at the end, it doesn’t really matter.”
Two-time All-American Conner Hartmann continued his winning ways at 197 pounds as well. The fifth-ranked grappler faced off against No. 7 Jared Haught in the dual’s only top-10 matchup, and the billing did not disappoint, going down to the final seconds.
After the opening period went scoreless, Hartmann rode Haught for the entirety of the second period and opted to start the final period down. After scoring a quick escape and fending off the Hokie 197-pounder’s late flurries, Hartmann scored a 2-0 victory for his 14th straight win, with his only loss of the season coming Jan. 2 against Minnesota’s Brett Pfarr. The Port Orchard, Wash., native is 8-1 against ranked opponents and 22-1 overall in his final campaign as a Blue Devil.
Duke will now turn from conference play to the Big Ten to face its final two dual opponents of the season at the end of next week. The Blue Devils will battle Northwestern Feb. 19 and Purdue Feb. 21 before resting up for the ACC tournament March 6.
“I am so happy we have two duals left,” Lanham said. “Now it’s ACCs. I get pumped up just talking about it because that’s when I feel like the cream [rises]—you’ve been working that for so long—and now that’s when I feel like that comes…. Now when it’s all on the line, when you’ve got all those cards in and you’ve got to lose your house on that bet, let’s see what you’re going to do now. You’ve got to be all in. Push all those chips in and that’s an exciting time of the year for me.”
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