The Blue Devils benefitted from a strong start against Wake Forest, but the match could have ended much differently had Duke not also found a way to finish strong too.
The No. 10 Blue Devils capped off a four-game road swing by defeating the No. 14 Demon Deacons 6-1 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston Salem, N.C., Saturday afternoon. Duke got off to a hot start, capturing the doubles point and first singles win to grab a 2-0 lead. But the Demon Deacons proved difficult to put away, grabbing first-set wins on four courts in singles play.
For the Blue Devils, the key moment of the match came in their team’s response to that mid-match push from the Demon Deacons. Duke’s endurance and resiliency eventually stifled Wake Forest’s comeback hopes, and the Blue Devils cruised to a five-point victory.
“We can compete with anyone, but even if we are down, one or two points makes a big difference,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth told GoDuke.com. "We have to keep fighting and keep believing. I told them before singles started that they had to play the point and the match until the very end. That’s how it worked out for us today. We kept battling after getting down. Hopefully we gained a little toughness and we raised our level of play.”
The Blue Devils (13-2, 6-1 in the ACC) posted two dominant wins in doubles en route to winning the match's first point. On court three, the Blue Devil pairing of juniors Chalena Scholl and Alyssa Smith withstood a tough battle by Demon Deacons Andrea Retolaza and Luisa Fernandez to earn a critical 6-4 victory. But, the most impressive performance from doubles play came on court two where the Duke tandem of sophomore Samantha Harris and freshman Kaitlin McCarthy blanked the duo of Samantha Asch and Emma Davis 6-0.
Duke’s lone loss in doubles came on court one, where the 14th-ranked duo of senior Beatrice Capra and freshman Ellyse Hamlin fell to the tandem of Kimmy Guerin and Anna Ulyashchenko 6-3.
“We both started off with a lot of energy and we were being really aggressive,” McCarthy told GoDuke.com. “The two girls we played were really good. I knew them going into the match, and I knew what they were capable of. I think that us being on them so quickly didn’t allow them to relax and start playing their game…. The energy we were able to bring from the beginning was a huge help, and I think that was the difference as to why we were able to start so quickly and keep the lead."
Wake Forest (16-5, 5-4 in the ACC) tipped momentum its way by winning four of six first sets in singles play, forcing the Blue Devils to play from behind for the reminder of the match.
Despite Wake Forest’s early success in singles, Harris captured the first singles point of the match, defeating Asch in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Demon Deacons soon crawled back within one, though, as Fernandez defeated Hamlin in straight sets on court five 7-5, 6-4.
Trailing by one and leading on three of the four remaining courts, Wake Forest was in a position to make a move for the lead. But, Duke fell back on the leadership of its veterans and mounted a rally of its own.
On court three, No. 35 McCarthy withstood a tough challenge from Ulyashchenko to capture the Blue Devils’ second singles point of the afternoon, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. The clinching point for Duke came on court two, where No. 92 Scholl stormed back to defeat Davis in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
“We started off fairly slowly, and the fact that we were able to bounce back…after having slow starts in the first shows a lot about this team," McCarthy said. “We aren’t going to go away easy. We are going to fight hard for every point and make it hard for our opponent."
Duke extended its lead on court one, where No. 28 Capra completed the Blue Devils’ second comeback of the afternoon, defeating No. 84 Guerin 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. With the match already decided, Duke’s sixth point of the day came from court six where redshirt freshman Christina Makarova defeated Xue Zhang 6-7, 6-4, 1-0.
The Blue Devils began their four-game road stretch March 6 with a 5-2 loss against Virginia Tech. But since then, Duke has notched wins against Pittsburgh, Louisville and now Wake Forest away from home, which bodes well as the team readies to host Tobacco Road rival No. 4 North Carolina Tuesday at Ambler Tennis Stadium.
“We have a bunch of tough matches coming up,” Ashworth said. “This one with Wake Forest being ranked No. 14, then we have North Carolina, Virginia, then Notre Dame and Michigan right after that. This was the first one and we talked about how the next two weeks is going to do a lot of defining the rest of our season, where we are in the ACC tournament and after that. Hopefully this is the start of a good 10-day stretch.”
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