The pair of victories clinched Duke’s eighth undefeated home campaign under head coach Jamie Ashworth.
Duke has not won an ACC title since 2012.
Duke ran into third-seeded Florida State, losing 4-1 at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C. on Friday night. That marked the third defeat in their last four matches for Duke with two of them coming against the Seminoles.
Last weekend, the Blue Devils clinched the ACC regular-season title with dominant performances against North Carolina and Virginia Tech. Now, Duke is three wins away from hoisting the postseason championship trophy and likely one of the top three seeds come NCAA tournament play next month.
Led by a dominant showing in singles, the Blue Devils earned their first victory against the Tar Heels since 2014.
The Blue Devils will need to dig deep to come out on top this weekend.
Duke put itself in prime position to win the ACC regular-season title outright next weekend if it takes down North Carolina.
Nicolas Alvarez rejoined his team Friday after spending last weekend in Metepec, Mexico competing for his native country of Peru in the Davis Cup.
The Blue Devils followed up their first loss in 11 matches with a 7-0 victory against Clemson Sunday afternoon.
In a weekend with Duke missing its top performer, the Blue Devils struggled mightily.
In both contests, Duke took down its competition 6-1, securing both hard-fought doubles points and only faltering once in each match on the singles courts.
Sean Sculley’s racquet went flying over the fence of Ambler Tennis Stadium’s Court 6 Friday night as he clinched the biggest win of his rookie season.
The fourth-ranked Blue Devils remained undefeated in the ACC with a 6-1 win against No. 19 Miami.
Before Duke could return to Durham for its ACC home opener, it needed to earn one more road victory to remain perfect in conference play.
The Blue Devils fell short of a team victory, but Nicolas Alvarez left the court with his biggest win of the season.
Now, the Blue Devils will face the ultimate test: taking on the No. 1 player in the country, who happens to play for their archrivals.
Playing on the road in the nation’s top conference against highly-ranked opponents is supposed to be a challenge. But no one informed the Blue Devils.
No. 8 Michigan routed 10th-ranked Duke 4-0, shutting out the Blue Devils after picking up the early doubles point.
In its first home match in almost a month, Duke extended its home winning streak to 18 matches.
The star-studded freshman class rounded out in January as the Blue Devils welcomed their eighth and final member of their 2018 roster.
