Last weekend, the Blue Devils let a 3-1 lead slip through their fingers.
This time, they held on.
Duke won four straight matches to clinch a 5-2 win against Miami Friday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla. The Blue Devils dominated singles play, rolling off five consecutive victories to earn their first win in ACC play this season.
“[I’m] really happy to start the road trip off with a win against a tough Miami team," Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “Obviously we had to handle some adversity and bounce back from losing the doubles point, but I thought we rebounded extremely well and fought especially hard in singles.”
With the dual match score at 3-1, No. 20 Nicolas Alvarez decided the match by taking down No. 28 Piotr Lamocki 6-4, 6-4, in a back-and-forth battle, getting himself back on track against top-notch competiton. Lamocki entered Friday riding a five-match winning streak, and Alvarez had not beaten a ranked opponent since Feb. 5.
Alvarez attempted a huge first serve to the center of the court that landed just long, but his second serve was well in and Lamocki’s return fell into the net. Alvarez clinched the Duke win for a team-high fourth time this season.
“He always seems to come through in big moments,” Smith said. “Nico was able to clinch the match against their number one, who’s been playing especially well. It was a hard-fought match, but Nico was a little bit tougher in the end.”
Alvarez and Lamocki traded lengthy rallies for more than an hour and a half, and the Lima, Peru, native managed to get ahead a break with the score locked at 3-3 in each set, but Lamocki did not back down easily. The Hurricane sophomore approached the net quickly or used deadly drop shots to keep Alvarez moving, but the Blue Devil held on to grab a 5-4 advantage in the second frame and serve out the win.
“He’s very focused and professional on the court, and he just naturally seems to handle pressure situations very well,” Smith said. “He’s very, very calm out there, and doesn’t seem to get rattled, so I always love it when it’s coming down to him.”
Before Alvarez could wrap up the victory, Duke (7-7, 1-1 in the ACC) needed to dig itself out of a 1-0 deficit after doubles play. Miami (6-6, 1-1) broke out to early leads on courts one and two and did not slow down despite the Blue Devils managing a 6-4 win on court three.
Jason Lapidus and Daniel McCall could not stay even with their Hurricane counterparts on court two, falling two breaks to lose 6-3. Miami’s Max Andrews and Bernard Tefel grabbed an early 3-1 lead and held off a comeback from Alvarez and partner Vincent Lin, and the Hurricanes marched confidently into singles with the 1-0 advantage.
Senior T.J. Pura and freshman Ryan Dickerson quickly halted any Hurricane surge when singles play began. Pura raced to a 6-1 first-set win against Nile Clark, finishing the match swiftly with a 6-0 second-set victory. Dickerson allowed opponent Niclas Genovese just one more game than his court four teammate, winning 6-2, 6-0, to move to 7-2 in dual season singles play.
“Any time you lose the doubles point you really want to try to get a singles point on the board quickly,” Smith said. “T.J. was phenomenal—he didn’t play doubles, and came out with a whole lot of energy and that was something we really needed, so I was very happy with him today. Ryan got off to a good start and he was able to finish off his opponent pretty quickly as well, so that really helped—giving us the lead in the match.”
Duke’s third point of the day came from an even matchup on court three, where freshman Vincent Lin eked out a 6-4, 6-4, win against Fermin Calvo. At 3-1, the Blue Devils found themselves with the same lead as their ACC opener a week earlier against Georgia Tech—a lead they lost, giving the 4-3 decision to the Yellow Jackets.
“Being up 3-1 is a good position,” Smith said. “We were up 3-1 against Georgia Tech and weren’t able to close it out, so I was really happy to be in the exact same situation and be able to finish off and then come through.”
Courts two and six finished after the match had been decided. Freshman Catalin Mateas staged an unsuccessful second-set comeback, dropping his match 3-6, 6-7 (4) on court two to the hard-hitting Andrews, who carried his success from doubles straight into singles. Mateas is still searching for his first ACC win, having moved up from court four to face tougher competition near the front of the lineup.
McCall raced to a 3-0 start in his singles match—the only Blue Devil to keep his Hurricane opponent scoreless through the first three games. Despite the quick advantage, McCall faltered after a 6-2 first-set win, dropping the second set 5-7 and forcing a decisive frame. Down 1-2, the senior looked ready to give Miami a third consolation point, but instead won five straight games to roll to a 6-2 third-set victory.
“Any time we can actually get up and get those three points and then have multiple matches still out there, it just helps take the pressure off a little bit,” Smith said. “Obviously, if it’s coming down to the last match, everyone knows that’s the match that is going to make the difference in the dual match, and it’s just always nicer to know you have teammates out there battling and give yourself a shot.”
Duke has little time to rest as it turns to face another conference foe Sunday at noon at Florida State. The younger Blue Devils will try to carry what they learned from the win against Miami into the second match of the weekend, and the returning members will hope to repeat the 7-0 dismantling of the Seminoles the team enjoyed in last season’s meeting in Durham.
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