Sportswrap: Filipowski injured in court-storming, women's basketball grabs pair of ranked upsets

Sportswrap is your one-stop shop for everything Duke athletics, where we’ll recap how each of Duke’s sports currently in competition performed over the last week and give a brief look ahead. Here’s our recap for the week of Feb. 19-25:

Men’s basketball

The eighth-ranked Blue Devils began their conference-clashing week with a breezy victory and ended it with a tough loss. On Wednesday at Miami, defensive excellence held the Hurricanes to just 55 points while offensive prowess put the Blue Devils (21-6, 12-4 in the ACC) at 84. Senior captain Jeremy Roach was the star of Wednesday’s performance, notching 16 points after going 4-for-6 from three. On Saturday afternoon, Duke kept to the road, taking the short trip to Winston-Salem, N.C., to see a victory slip through its fingers at Wake Forest. Sticking points from the game: A rowdy court storming and Joe Lunardi perhaps underrating the ACC. Duke will finally go home Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tip against Louisville before a Saturday date with Virginia. -Sophie Levenson

Women’s basketball

After an intense matchup with No. 16 Notre Dame Monday night, Duke put together arguably its two most impressive wins of the season this week, notching victories at No. 17 Syracuse and against No. 6 N.C. State at Cameron Indoor Stadium Sunday evening. Against the Orange, the Blue Devils (18-9, 10-6) put down the clamps, stifling a lethal offense led by star guard Dyaisha Fair, who was 7-for-25 shooting. Sunday was truly the feather in Duke’s cap at this point in the season, however, as the defense again swarmed an elite Wolfpack team, avenging January’s loss and holding them to a mere 33.3% shooting rate. Next up, Duke will host Virginia Thursday night before a weekend trip to Chapel Hill. -Caleb Dudley

Baseball

No. 13 Duke continued to roll through the second week of its schedule, improving to an undefeated 7-0. The team first took on Liberty in its home opener for a tough midweek matchup. Ben Miller and Logan Bravo powered an explosive third inning to put the Blue Devils (7-0) up 3-1. They managed to hold on the rest of the way, with the Flames only tacking on one unearned run off freshman Kyle Johnson in the seventh inning. Turning toward the weekend, Duke fought its way to a commanding sweep of Northwestern. The series opened with a 2-0 pitcher’s duel, headlined by six scoreless innings from starter Jonathan Santucci and closer Charlie Beilenson’s fourth save of the season. The bats came alive in the next two games as contributions all throughout the lineup pushed the Blue Devils to win 8-2 Saturday and 20-9 Sunday. Few had as remarkable of an offensive weekend as Miller — the graduate transfer from Penn knocked four RBIs, including a go-ahead solo shot Friday, while batting .455. Next up, Duke will stay home and face Davidson Tuesday afternoon . -Josh Alms

Softball

In its first ACC contest of the year, Duke stumbled as it lost to No. 19 Clemson at home in a 20-11 defeat. After leading the first quarter with a score of 3-2, the Tigers clawed their way back with nine goals in the second quarter and never looked back. Senior attacker Katie DeSimone led all scorers with five goals, bringing her tally to 24 on the year. Graduate student Courtney Kaufman and redshirt sophomore Kennedy Everson combined for 11 saves in goal. The Blue Devils (2-3, 0-1) will look to bounce back Tuesday as they go on the road against Liberty. -Mackenzie Sheehy

Men’s tennis

No. 13 Duke both finished its nonconference slate and started ACC play this weekend, traveling to Cambridge, Mass., for contests against Harvard and Boston College. The Blue Devils (9-5, 1-0) fell in a tight match to the eighth-ranked Crimson 4-3, but got singles wins from Garrett Johns, Pedro Rodenas and Alexander Visser. Duke bounced back with a 6-1 domination of the Eagles, and after losing the doubles point, all six singles players emerged victorious. Visser replaced Rodenas in the doubles lineup as the freshman and Johns recorded undefeated singles weekends. The Blue Devils take their undefeated conference record back home as they will face Clemson Friday. -Ranjan Jindal 

Women’s tennis

Returning from a two-week hiatus proved rough for the 14th-ranked Blue Devils as they dropped both of their matches this weekend. After not playing since Feb. 3, Duke (6-4, 0-2) opened its match Friday against No. 25 Miami with a loss of the doubles point before an eventual 5-2 defeat. Sophomore Emma Jackson was the bright spot Friday as she registered her third-career victory against a top-10 opponent. Duke then traveled to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on Florida State Sunday, falling 6-1 and again surrendering the doubles point. It was a hard-fought doubles battle as both court 1 and court 2 were tied 6-6, with the Blue Devils falling in both tie-breakers. The singular win came from graduate student Brianna Shvets in singles. Duke will hope to rebound from these road losses at home next weekend as they take on Syracuse and Boston College. -Anna Newberry 

Men’s golf

After traveling to La Quinta, Calif., to compete in The Prestige this week, No. 25 Duke finished 12-under par and tied for fifth place. Sophomore Ethan Evans and freshman Bryan Kim rolled early, each capping off the first day with scores of 5-under. On the second day, junior Luke Sample ran the show, featuring an eagle on hole 12, pushing Duke into second place. Kim’s consistency held strong as he finished in the red each day, accompanied only by sophomore Daniel Choi, as the freshman tallied his best score-to-par performance at 6-under. Evans would lead the team at 7-under – his second consecutive top-10 finish. In the individual tournament, William Love was back in action and ended 6-under, tying for second place. The Blue Devils look to continue the momentum next week at the Wake Forest Invitational, hosted at famous Pinehurst No. 2. -Andrew Negus

Women’s golf

In the first competition of the spring, the 16th ranked Blue Devils struggled with consistency across three rounds of play, resulting in an unsatisfying 13th-place finish out of 17 teams. Tuesday marked the end of the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Fla., and Duke’s best round of play — the team shot 7-under and brought its final score down to +24. Graduate student Emma McMyler and freshman Katie Li each hit -3 in the third and final round, with senior Anne Chen finishing close behind at 2-under. However, the Blue Devils’ strong showing on day 3 — finishing third in the round — came after surviving a round-two +24 storm that previously dropped the team to last place and left Duke without hope of recovering from its +7 round-one finish. The Blue Devils now look ahead to the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, S.C., starting March 4. -Ryan Kilgallen

Swimming and diving

Duke spent the weekend at ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C., bringing home five medals and a school record over the course of the five-day meet. Senior Martina Peroni won silver with a 1:54.00 in the women’s 200-yard butterfly, while Sarah Foley took bronze in the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:55.12. Sophomore Kaelyn Gridley also won bronze in a three-way tie for third in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke. Margo O’Meara flipped to success in both the 3-meter and 1-meter dives, securing a respective silver and bronze medal in the events. The team of Ali Pfaff, Gridley, Aleyna Ozkan and Tatum Wall joined forces to dismantle Duke’s school record in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:35.85 and a fifth-place finish. Up next for the Blue Devils are the NCAA Championships, which begin in mid-March. -Abby DiSalvo

Track and field

This weekend, Duke’s season came to a bittersweet end with fourth- and ninth- place showings for the women and men, respectively, at the ACC Indoor Championships in Boston. While the Blue Devils fell short of their team goals, they still churned out seven podium finishes and 14 All-ACC recognitions, headlined by graduate student Christian Johnson with a 21.73m win in the weight throw and junior Amina Maatoug with a time of 4:38.16 to win gold in the women’s one mile. In the pentathlon, senior Brianna Smith took home the bronze, while senior Moorea Mitchell did the same with a new school record. On the track, graduate student Ezra Mellinger claimed bronze in the 200m, becoming the first Blue Devil all-time to break 21 seconds indoors. In the women’s sprints, graduate student Halle Beiber scored silver medals in the 200m and the 4x400m relay, where she was joined by sophomores Julia Jackson and Lauren Tolbert and graduate student Tina Martin. On March 8-9, the Blue Devils hope to send Maatoug, Smith and senior MaKayla Mason to the NCAA Indoor Championships, where they will compete against the best in the nation. -Prithvi Kotapati

Wrestling

Duke’s losing streak continued Friday, as the team fell to North Carolina by a score of 41-9 in the final match of the regular season. The loss means that the Blue Devils finish another season winless in ACC play — their sixth consecutive. On the bright side, freshman Raymond Adams logged his first career ACC victory against the Tar Heels’ Max Martin by a score of 10-1. Additionally, redshirt freshman Connor Barket continued his impressive run of form to a 20-4 victory by technical fall. Next week, Duke begins postseason play back in Chapel Hill at the ACC Championships. -Rodrigo Amare

Fencing

Duke capped off its conference season this weekend in South Bend, Ind., for the ACC Championships. The individual portion of the tournament Saturday saw senior co-captain Christina Ferrari defend her silver medal from the 2023 Championships. The New York native ended pool play with a total of 10 wins before falling 15-9 against Notre Dame's Josephine Conway in the final. Freshman Samir Travers also had a successful run on Saturday with 10 pool-play wins and a 15-11 victory in the semifinal bracket to take home the bronze medal. The men’s team entered team play Sunday as the No. 4-seed but performed well above expectations to secure a 17-10 win against Boston College and finish in third. The first-seeded women’s team placed second after a close 14-13 defeat against the Eagles. Up next are the NCAA Regionals, slated for March 9 in Madison, N.J. -Emily Wang