Every trip to Chapel Hill is an important occasion for Duke, but Wednesday’s short drive down Tobacco Road to visit its archrivals now carries even more weight than usual.
As one of two undefeated teams remaining in the ACC, the 15th-ranked Blue Devils have put themselves in contention to win their first regular-season conference title since 2012—if they can beat their nemesis and get through the rest of the week unscathed.
Duke will look to set up a potential winner-take all matchup with No. 6 Georgia Tech—the only other perfect team in conference play—Sunday with an upset against No. 3 North Carolina Wednesday at 3 p.m at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. Riding a 12-match winning streak, the Blue Devils will face a hot Tar Heel team in its own right that has shut out four opponents in a row. North Carolina has won three straight ACC regular-season championships and crushed Duke 4-1 the last two years.
“It’s a great rivalry, with us and with any sport,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “The plus with that is that we don’t have to do any motivating—they know what’s at stake. They also know that UNC has been really good these last few years. It’s great for tennis to be a part of a rivalry like this.”
Despite their overwhelming success as of late, the Blue Devils will have to clean up their doubles play to get off to a good start against North Carolina. The Tar Heels (24-2, 10-1 in the ACC) feature the No. 1 doubles duo in the nation in Jessie Aney and Hayley Carter, a pairing that has gone 19-1 together this season.
On the other hand, Duke (17-3, 11-0) has struggled uncharacteristically at doubles recently, winning a hotly-contested doubles point against Wake Forest and dropping the point Sunday to Syracuse.
“We have to not give up as many free points as we’ve had and cut down on serve return errors, basically making UNC earn their points,” Ashworth said. “We can’t keep giving away free points with poor decision-making or lack of execution. We’re at the point in the season where we have to make shots.”
Duke’s top-ranked doubles tandem of Meible Chi and Kaitlyn McCarthy dropped both of its matches against the Orange and the Demon Deacons. The No. 34 pairing in the nation had won 10 of its first 12 matches, but fell to two unranked pairs last weekend. Chi also lost her second straight singles match against Wake Forest.
But Chi—No. 36 in the nation in singles—bounced back from her struggles emphatically Sunday, routing No. 80 Gabriella Knutson 6-0, 6-2 to help catapult the Blue Devils past the Orange 5-2.
“She was a little bit down after Boston College and Wake and didn’t play as well as she wanted to,” Ashworth said. “Even after the way the doubles ended at Syracuse, she did a great job in the beginning of the singles match and was emotionally into the match. She was pumping her fist and was excited from the start. That let her be free throughout the rest of the match. It was great to see because she’s been great for us, but also because for us to accomplish everything we want to accomplish, we need her playing well.”
Another regular hasn’t been at top form as of late—No. 73 Samantha Harris, who has dropped four consecutive matches, a stretch in which she has won just one set at No. 1 singles.
Despite Chi and Harris’ struggles, Duke has had a strong supporting cast behind them in singles, including McCarthy and Chalena Scholl, who have combined to win 27 consecutive matches to fuel the team’s winning streak.
Chi and Harris will both have top-10 opponents awaiting them in No. 2 Carter and No. 8 Sara Daavettila. Carter is a perfect 20-0 in singles this season, and North Carolina’s third and fourth singles players No. 26 Aney and No. 46 Alexa Graham are also perfect in ACC play.
Although they started out the spring season unranked, the Blue Devils’ late surge on the back of some unexpected contributors hasn’t surprised Ashworth, but they will need an upset to continue their winning streak Wednesday.
“I saw early on in our season, the matches in January and February, that our team played with a lot of heart and toughness in pressure situations,” Ashworth said. “By the time the conference season had started, we had already won a close three or four matches. A lot of that was them being mentally tough and believing in themselves.... It’s been great to see but we have a tough week this week.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.