After struggling in their third week of ACC play, the Blue Devils will have to find their footing on the road as they continue their stretch of four matches away from Durham.
No. 8 Duke will face Pittsburgh Friday at 4 p.m. at the Alpha Tennis & Fitness Club in Pittsburgh before making the trek to the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center in Louisville, Ky., for a matchup with the Cardinals Sunday at 11 a.m.
The Blue Devil got a break in their schedule just when they needed it. The squad has had more than a week to recover from its shorthanded 6-1 win against then-No. 24 Syracuse March 4—in which top singles player Beatrice Capra was sidelined with a rolled ankle and No. 2 singles player Kaitlyn McCarthy sat out with food poisoning—and a 5-2 loss at Virginia Tech March 6.
“It’s unusual to have a 12-day break in the middle of the season,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth told GoDuke.com. “Hopefully we put in some good work, got people healthy and are ready for this last push through a pretty tough stretch.”
Taking on the Panthers for third time in program history, Duke (10-2, 3-1 in the ACC) will look keep its series record perfect. The Blue Devils have four singles players ranked in the ITA top 125—No. 28 Capra, No. 32 McCarthy, No. 67 Chalena Scholl and No. 106 Ellyse Hamlin—compared to just one for Pittsburgh in No. 123 Audrey Ann Blakely.
The Panthers (7-3, 1-3) registered their first ACC win in school history Feb. 19 against Louisville, locking up the doubles point and sweeping the top three singles courts en route to a 5-2 victory. Pittsburgh took a break from conference play after a loss to then-No. 3 North Carolina by the same score and picked up two more wins against Morgan State and Duquesne March 11.
The home squad will look to carry that momentum into Friday’s match with hopes of pulling off its first win against a ranked opponent.
Scholl stepped up to take over for Capra on court one against the Orange when the redshirt senior was injured in doubles play and earned the first of two straight victories at the top spot, later bringing home ACC Player of the Week honors for her efforts. The Pompano Beach, Fla., native has tallied 14 wins so far this season, but her tenure at No. 1 singles may stop Friday when Capra and McCarthy return to the singles lineup.
The Blue Devils will look for their first doubles point since their top-15 matchup with then-No. 13 Miami late last month. Ashworth switched up his top duo of Capra and Hamlin after they dropped their set against Syracuse 5-7, but the No. 18 pair could return to court one in search of its 14th win Friday.
The Cardinals (7-8, 0-5) are winless in ACC matches and have not tallied more than a point in three consecutive contests. Louisville has not secured the doubles point against a conference foe yet this season, and only one Cardinal player has picked up against a set against a ranked opponent—Sena Suswam claimed the second set against then-No. 82 Kimmy Guerin of Wake Forest in her 0-6, 6-4, 0-1 match Feb. 26.
But Duke will still be wary of Louisville, especially after coming up on the wrong side of an upset in their first conference road match of the season against the Hokies before the break. The Blue Devils’ matchup with the Cardinals will also mark Duke's first time playing at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center, presenting a new environment to get accustomed to before trying to notch a win.
“There’s a lot of unknowns for us [heading to Louisville],” Ashworth said. “We’ve never been to Louisville. It’s new for everybody facility-wise. We have to make sure we have a good practice Saturday afternoon in Louisville.”
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