Duke women's tennis hosts No. 1 North Carolina with ACC regular-season title at stake
By Winston Lindqwister | April 20, 2018The Blue Devils will need to dig deep to come out on top this weekend.
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.
Nicolas Alvarez suffered a wrist injury and was forced to miss the entire spring season in 2017.
After trailing 3-0 against No. 22 Notre Dame, the Blue Devils fought their way back to the season’s biggest win so far.
The Blue Devils picked up where they left off to start the outdoor season.
The Blue Devils will finally dig into conference play this weekend.
The 15th-seeded Blue Devils will open play Friday afternoon against second-seeded Ohio State.