Duke women's tennis players compete in NCAA Singles Championship
(05/22/14 10:29am)
As the classic Meat Loaf song goes, “Two outta three ain’t bad.” Especially when it comes to the NCAA Championships.
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As the classic Meat Loaf song goes, “Two outta three ain’t bad.” Especially when it comes to the NCAA Championships.
In a season that has been such a diversion from past years, Duke's opening round ACC tournament game was more of the same for the Blue Devils—great pitching, poor hitting.
Good things come to those who wait. Come Wednesday morning, that saying will come true for the Blue Devil seniors.
Often times, sports teams use the cliché, "We're going to give it our best," prior to a big game or tournament. This weekend, Duke followed through on that saying in its last race of the season.
New teams, new format and new rivalries. The only thing that will be the same about this year's ACC Championship for Duke will be the location.
At this point, Duke may want to start booking its hotel rooms for the Final Four at the beginning of the season to save some money.
After getting its revenge on Notre Dame last weekend, Duke's attempt to go two-for-two on upset bids fell short against Maryland.
Duke already upset one seeded team on the road in the playoffs. Saturday it will look to add to that total.
The winner of Thursday’s contest will face either fifth-seeded UCLA or 12th-seeded Miami Saturday at 4 p.m.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming off a disappointing series in which they were swept by Miami, Duke bounced back and closed out their home slate in impressive fashion.Playing their final home game of the regular season, the Blue Devils cruised to a 10-3 victory against Richmond at Jack Coombs Field Tuesday night. Led by starter Kevin Lewallyn, Duke's pitching staff shut down the Spiders, while the offense exploded for more runs than they totaled in three games against the Hurricanes. Tuesday's win was especially significant for the Blue Devil seniors in the finale of their home careers. As fate would have it, they faced the same Richmond team they clashed with in their home opener as freshmen Feb. 18, 2011—a 6-5 win. "It's kind of cool because the senior class, our first game here was versus Richmond at the Coombs," senior third baseman Jordan Betts said. "[It's] kind of interesting. They welcomed us to college baseball at this place and to go out versus them and, fortunately for us, to get the same result."Duke (31-21) has been anchored by its pitching staff all season long and that did not change Tuesday against the Spiders (22-25-1). Lewallyn (3-1) picked up the win and dominated early, throwing four innings of one-hit, one-run ball and facing only 15 batters in his time on the mound.Redshirt sophomore Conner Stevens came in to relieve Lewallyn and was not as masterful, but still managed to keep Richmond at bay. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits in 2.2 innings of work."[Lewallyn] went about 45 pitches. 50 pitches was where we wanted to cap him, so we got him out of there a little ahead of his pitch count," head coach Chris Pollard said. "Every single guy that threw today will be live this weekend, which is what we wanted. We didn't want to extend anyone past the point where we couldn't bring them back and we accomplished that goal."It has been the bats—not the pitching—that have doomed the Blue Devils at times during the season. Tuesday night, after struggling to get anything going on offense against Miami, Duke did not hold back against the Spiders, pushing across 10 runs on 13 hits, four of which went for extra bases. In the bottom of the third, the Blue Devils used a pair of triples and a risky bunt to take the lead for good. After Betts doubled and Chris Marconcini drew a walk, Matt Berezo came through with a two-RBI triple down the right field line that pushed Duke's lead to 4-1.The Blue Devils were not done there. Mike Rosenfeld followed Berezo's blast with a clutch hit of his own. Duke's catcher laid down a bunt—attempting a suicide squeeze—but ended up beating pitcher Robbie Baker to first as Berezo scored from third."It was kind of just right time, right place," Rosenfeld said. "It was a good time for it, for sure. I think it's a momentum swing with the triple then to catch them sleeping a little bit out of it, it was a great call by Coach."Ryan Deitrich followed the squeeze with a triple of his own, scoring Rosenfeld from first. Deitrich then scored on the next play when shortstop Kenny Koplove hit a sacrifice fly to center field. By the time Mike Lumpa flied out to end the inning, the Blue Devil lead had ballooned to 7-1.The Spiders threatened to come back in the top of the seventh when Jansen Fraser roped a double to the gap in left-center field, bringing two runs home and cutting the lead to 7-3. But Duke would not allow a comeback and answered Richmond's most productive inning with a three-run frame of its own, extending the lead to 10-3. Koplove and Lumpa knocked a pair of back-to-back to RBI singles to accompany a sacrifice fly by Berezo to produce the three runs in the bottom of the seventh."We had some really, really good at-bats," Pollard said. "Not just the fact that we had the number of hits [and] runs that we did, but I thought we did a really good job with our situational offense."Duke will not have time to celebrate a successful home campaign, as it will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday to kick off its final series of the year against No. 4 Florida State.
On a day where the majority of Maddy Morrissey's classmates were back in Durham for the graduation ceremony, the senior midfielder still managed to make Sunday a day to remember.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Air Force kept things interesting for the first 15 minutes but the Blue Devils spent the next 45 showing everybody why they are seeking their second straight national championship.Duke blew past the Falcons for a 20-9 victory in the opening round of the NCAA Championship. The Blue Devils, led by sophomore Myles Jones, used an explosive second quarter to pull away and secure their spot in the quarterfinals for the seventh year in a row.“Today you saw a whole bunch of examples of the right play,” Duke coach John Danowski said. “Where we made the extra pass, where you could hear guys calling ‘one more.’ That means one more pass. There were a couple of times where we moved the ball three or four times and finished it on the back side in the second quarter because guys were playing right. They were playing together.”The first period was played close but Duke managed to come out unscathed and spent the majority of the quarter—and the game—with the lead. Senior Jordan Wolf hit a close range shot to give Duke a 1-0 lead, an advantage it would not surrender for the remaining 59 minutes. Wolf would go on to finish with three goals.But the Falcons kept things interesting, as it seemed as though they would be able to start the second quarter with a reasonable two-goal deficit. But senior attack Josh Dionne had other plans.Dionne—who only played a quarter in last year's NCAA tournament—ended the first 15 minutes with a spectacular falling underhand shot with a second remaining to give the Blue Devils a 5-2 advantage entering the second quarter.The second quarter proved to be the period of separation for Duke thanks to the fact that the ball rarely ventured into the Blue Devil half of the field. Duke outshot the Falcons 16-10 in the decisive second period of play, with the Blue Devils netting seven of those shots compared to Air Force's one.“We are really confident in our offense,” sophomore attackman Case Matheis said. “When all our players are playing unselfish and playing Duke lacrosse, we are pretty confident in our players.”Jones dominated the first half of play and ended the day with an impressive stat line. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound sophomore overpowered the Falcon defense with a commanding overhand shot and finished the day with three goals and five assists to lead all players with eight points."Myles is 240 pounds and there are not too many 240-pound midfielders in the country,” Danowski said. “He’s such a terrific athlete, has great stick skills and vision. You can see his basketball skills at play when he plays with his head up and he just continues to get better each week.”Duke spread the love on offense, with eight Blue Devils finding the back of the net by the time the game concluded. Although the Air Force senior class provided a nice story entering the tournament—the Falcons won just one game in 2010 but improved to turn in an 11-win campaign this season—they could not compete with the depth Duke presented Sunday.“All week we worked on dodging with our head up and got away from selfish play,” Jones said. “You can’t get 20 goals by yourself or with one or two guys. Getting everyone involved was awesome.”Duke managed to pull away not just because of its depth and the efficiency with which it shot but also the quantity. The Blue Devils registered 50 shots and found success with 40 percent of their shots opposed to Air Force's 25 percent on 35 shots.Duke will travel to Newark, Del., to take on Johns Hopkins May 18 at either noon or 2:30 p.m. The Blue Jays upset eighth-seeded Virginia 14-8 Sunday.
After a week to rest and get back to its winning ways, Duke will begin its postseason with hopes of repeating the success of last year's national championship run.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Entering the NCAA Championship, Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel spoke of treating the postseason as a clean slate. If that was the case, then the Blue Devils made a good first impression Friday.Ninth-ranked Duke overpowered No. 19 Stanford en route to a 13-8 victory at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend, Ind., where the Blue Devils secured a spot in the second round of the playoffs and rematch against ACC foe Notre Dame.“We had so many different people contribute and being threats on offense,” Kimel said. “And huge credit to our defense – they played so well today. Stanford has a lot of threats as well, and I thought we did a great job, particularly on their top players ...Kelsey Duryea was seeing the ball really well today. I also thought the defense did a good job of making sure that the shots that she saw were pretty limited. I was really proud of our team.”
Duke made it to the postseason for the 17th straight season. Now that they're in, they will have to put the last half of the season behind them and hope history repeats itself.
With the season coming to a close, so is the window for runners looking to make the postseason.
Led by newly crowned ACC Offensive Player of the Year Jordan Wolf, the Blue Devils will look to get back to their winning ways as they take on Boston University Sunday.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sunday will reveal whether or not finals week was able to do what opponents have failed to accomplish in the past nine games—defeat the Blue Devils.Duke will get back on the diamond Sunday to defend its nine-game winning streak with a doubleheader against Longwood University at Jack Coombs Field. The first game is set to begin at 1 p.m. with the second contest slated to start at 4 p.m., before the series wraps up Monday at 4 p.m. at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.Baseball is all about who's hot, and the Blue Devils (28-17) come into this series red-hot. With series wins against North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest under their belts, the state's hottest team will look to pick up its 10th win in a row against the Lancers (19-25)."Baseball is just a momentum game," redshirt junior catcher Mike Rosenfeld said. "Our bats were kind of cold for a good part of the season. Our pitching's been fabulous the whole time. But for our bats to wake up right now is key, you just have to catch fire at the right time."While Duke's bats are just recently starting to heat up, pitching has been one of its strong suits all season—as the team ranks third in the ACC with a 2.95 ERA. Southpaw Trent Swart—who will take the ball for the first game Sunday—leads all conference starters with a minuscule 0.75 ERA. Sophomore Michael Matuella and junior Andrew Istler will start the second half of the doubleheader and Monday's game, respectively.The Blue Devils struggled at the plate during the early part of the season, which led to several close losses. But the woes—and the losses—stopped as Duke's bats began to heat up. Through the past 12 games—11 of which have been victories for the Blue Devils—second baseman Andy Perez has led the offensive charge. During this dozen-game stretch, Perez leads the team with a .413 batting average."It's been a product of some of our key guys in the lineup making some good adjustments and heating up," Pollard said. "You look at Andy Perez and the way he's played over the last 10 or 12 games." Perez has had plenty of help in leading Duke's offensive resurgence, with redshirt junior Chris Marconcini and senior Jordan Betts helping to ignite the Blue Devils' bats during their current hot streak. The upperclassman duo has bolstered the middle of the lineup for Duke, as Marconcini leads the ACC with 42 RBIs and eight home runs. Following his return from injury, Betts is posting career-highs in each of the three major offensive categories, with a .322 batting average, a .545 slugging percentage and a .440 on base percentage."It's not necessarily a big shift team-wise we've had," Pollard said. "It's more a product of some individual guys getting hot at the right time."The Blue Devils will look to keep their offensive momentum going after taking a week off to focus on finals. Although Pollard has had teams in the past that came out sluggish following exams, the senior leadership on this team has him confident Duke will handle Sunday's doubleheader exceptionally."These young guys have some good role models on how to handle [finals]," Pollard said. "It's not easy at a place like Duke. These guys are a little bit fried mentally. What we try to do is use the time [at practice] to kind of let them get their heads clear."
After months of speculation, the final piece of the recruiting puzzle has been placed. Unfortunately for Duke, that piece won't be wearing a Blue Devil uniform.
Ohio State (19-8) and South Carolina (16-8) will play prior to Duke's match, as the Buckeyes and Gamecocks will start play at 10 a.m. The winners of each contest will match up May 10 at 3 p.m. for second round play.