The men's tennis team found its first real challenge of the spring season at the USTA/ITA Men's National Indoor Intercollegiate Team Championships in Louisville, Ky., this weekend.
The Blue Devils, ranked No. 4 in the nation, defeated No. 9 Louisiana State in the first round, then fell to No. 15 Kentucky in the second round. The Blue Devils bounced back to post a big win over No. 6 UCLA in the consolation round.
The LSU match was tough right from the outset. The Blue Devils won the doubles as sophomores Peter Ayers and Rob Chess defeated Alex Guevara and Janne Holtari, 8-5. Freshman pair Adam Gusky and Sven Koehler easily put away Gus Fernandes and Jose Leon, 8-2. Tigers Ryan Ideta and Chad Dudley downed junior Chris Pressley and sophomore Jordan Murray, 8-6.
On the singles side the Blue Devils also had difficult competition from a pesky Tiger team. At the first spot, Pressley, ranked third in the nation, had Duke's only straight-set win of the day, defeating Fernandes, 6-3, 6-1. Chess, 33rd in the nation, battled back from a tough first-set loss to beat Holtari at the third spot, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
"It was a tough match," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "The singles matches were a dogfight all the way. Rob really came through with a big win."
Ayers, ranked 45th and playing at the second spot, was defeated handily by Guevara, 6-3, 6-4. The only other loss on the day came at the sixth spot when junior Philippe Moggio fell to Leon, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
"[LSU] is definitely a top-10 team," Lapidus said. "They were our first real test this season. To beat them [by a score of] 5-2 was a good accomplishment."
After the 5-2 lashing of the Tigers, the next round of the tournament found the Blue Devils squaring off with a rather unlikely opponent, Kentucky. Ranked 15th in the nation, Kentucky upset No. 3 Southern Cal in the first round.
"Kentucky won the doubles against Southern Cal, and then killed them in singles," Lapidus said. "Kentucky is a very deep team, and they're definitely a team that's for real."
The Blue Devils got off to a roaring start, capturing all the doubles matches handily. However, the Blue Devils struggled with the Wildcats in singles. Pressley dropped the first set but then came back to easily defeat Michael Hopkinson, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. At the No. 2 spot, Ayers was beaten in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. Chess scored a win at the No. 3 spot over Ludde Sundin, ranked 27th in the nation, by taking him 6-1, 6-3.
Chess' victory was to be the last one of the day for the Blue Devils. Gusky, playing at the No. 4 spot, lost a tough match to Jason Yeager, 6-3, 7-6. Ford Lankford easily put away Murray, 6-0, 6-1. The heartwrencher of the day came at the No. 6 position. Koehler faced Wildcat Jason Thompson and they were perhaps the most evenly matched pair of the day. The match lasted over three hours but Thompson finally broke away from Koehler in a tiebreaker to decide the third set. Koehler went down fighting in a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 loss.
"Sven really did a great job," Lapidus said. "He had played for more than three hours, and in the last point it was 3-all. He played a great match, even though he did lose."
With the loss to Kentucky by a score of 4-3, the Blue Devils moved to the consolation round on Sunday to face UCLA. The Blue Devils got off to a shaky start as they lost the doubles point, a normal strong area for the Duke team. The lone doubles win came from the No. 3 position where Gusky and Koehler edged out a win over Heath Montgomery and Rae Cho, 9-8.
The Blue Devils went into the singles with a tough road ahead of them. At the No. 1 position, Pressley faced off with 12th-ranked Robert Janacek and handily defeated him, 6-3, 6-3. Ayers once again lost in straight sets to Sebestian LeBlanc, 7-5, 6-1. Ayers has only won one singles match this spring, with that win coming at the first match with Furman.
"Peter's just struggling with his confidence," Lapidus said. "He's having a real tough spell. He'll work his way out of it, though. Even though he lost, he was really glad that the other guys picked up the slack [during this tournament]."
Chess continued his domination at the No. 3 spot, taking care of Eric Taino 6-4, 7-5. Gusky had split sets with UCLA's Loren Peters when the Bruin retired, leaving Gusky with a forfeit victory. The match that clinched the win for the Blue Devils came at the No. 5 spot, where Murray battled back after a first-set loss to overcome Montgomery, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5. Moggio also pulled out a victory over Lin at the No. 6 spot, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
With the 5-2 win over UCLA, the Blue Devils finished the tournament in a tie for fifth. Next on the Blue Devils' agenda is a series of road matches over spring break. The list of opponents includes many of the top teams in the nation, including 10th-ranked Florida and a rematch with Kentucky.
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