The third-ranked women's tennis team fell to Florida Saturday in an explosive matchup between two of the nation's elite tennis programs. The 5-4 setback was the Blue Devils' second loss this season to the No. 2 Gators. Earlier this season, Florida had inflicted a 5-1 defeat on Duke at the National Indoor Championships.
It was a marvellous day for tennis in Gainesville. In a hard-fought rematch at Florida's Scott Linder Stadium, Duke came painfully close to toppling the defending national champions. The Blue Devils were up 4-3 at one stage of the match but came up short as Florida put away the last two doubles matches to clinch victory after 4 hours and 19 minutes of pure emotion.
With this win, the Gators will claim the No. 1 ranking from Texas in the next ITC poll. They are the only team to have beaten the Blue Devils, who move to 12-2 overall and remain 4-0 and in first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Florida is now a sparkling 17-1.
Duke showed tremendous courage and tenacity in challenging the highly touted Florida team. Head coach Geoff Macdonald had nothing but praise for his players' improved showing.
"To put this in a positive light, well, five weeks ago, we lost to them 5-1," Macdonald said. "We had our chances, but it was decisive -- they licked us. But we learned in the right way, and five weeks later its 5-4. The way we played [Saturday] was astonishing."
Early on, history looked as if it was going to repeat itself as Florida's Lisa Raymond stunned Julie Exum in an awesome display of superiority. Raymond needed only 59 minutes to dispose of Duke's best player, 6-0, 6-2.
"Lisa Raymond is the best player in college right now," Macdonald said. "She served well, made few unforced errors and was great mentally. She played thorough world class tennis."
But apart from Exum's loss, almost every other match was closely contested. Three out of six singles duels had to be decided in third sets, but the adversity only served to spur on the Blue Devils.
"There were four first sets that we lost in 20 minutes, and a team without character would have gotten down then," Macdonald said. "But our players simply thought, `Okay, we're down a set, it'll now take two more to win it'."
The consequent valiant performance by the Blue Devils made the teams begin doubles play with the score deadlocked at 3-3. Scoring points for Duke were Susan Sommerville, Monica Mraz and Wendy Lyons.
Sommerville had lost the first set 6-1 against Florida's Jill Brenner. But the senior then composed herself to take the next two sets 7-5, 6-4. Mraz was forced into a tie-breaker in her battle with Erika Kuttler before subduing the Gator 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Lyons had the least stressful tussle, triumphing 6-4, 6-4 over Lori Ann Freedman.
Exum and Lyons then combined to brush aside the Florida pair of Kuttler and Kristin Osmond 6-2, 6-1 in just 50 minutes, giving the Blue Devils a 4-3 advantage.
But inexperience and the sheer excellence of Raymond saved the day for Florida. Andrea Farley and Freedman defeated Mraz and Christine Neuman 6-4, 7-5. Raymond and Brenner then sealed the result for their team with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Sommerville and Lisa Pugliese.
"Brenner played some solid tennis, not making any mistakes," Macdonald said. "But whenever Raymond hit the ball, she took over the point -- she's that good. "Farley, as a senior, did a good job of leading her [doubles] partner, but Monica and Christine do need more experience playing together in big matches."
Next week the Blue Devils will face another giant contender, this time in Austin, Texas against the Longhorns. According to Macdonald, his players will remain unfazed by this loss.
"We had some phenomenal competition today, it was a great match," Macdonald said. "We're going to learn from the close losses [and] this match helped us a lot. The team's up, and we will be working hard and smart. We're knocking on the door, we'll beat it down the next time."
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