The men's tennis team was the team to beat in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season -- it captured the ACC regular season and tournament titles last year, made a great NCAA run and was ranked in the top 10 preseason.
However, not one ACC team was able to accomplish the feat of defeating the Blue Devils, leaving Duke undefeated in conference play and in a solid position to repeat as ACC champions.
The ACC tournament takes place this weekend at the Renaissance Tennis Center in Charlotte. The seventh-ranked Blue Devils (17-5, 7-0) will start play on Friday, as they take on the winner of No. 8 N.C. State and No. 9 Maryland. A challenge in the second round could come from either No. 4 Clemson or No. 5 Florida State, both of whom Duke defeated by a mere margin of 4-3. The Tigers or Seminoles are apt to seek revenge for those close losses.
The No. 2 seed in the tournament is Georgia Tech. Both the Yellow Jackets and North Carolina finished the season 6-2 in the ACC, but Georgia Tech was seeded higher because it defeated the Tar Heels 4-3 earlier in the season. Duke edged both teams 6-1 in match play, but could face tough competition from either.
The Blue Devils are heading into the tournament with high hopes. Riding a seven-match winning streak, Duke looks to add this year's title to its accomplishments of the past few years. At the beginning of the 1990-91 season, the team was unranked. Since then, the ascent to the top has been steady, bringing the Blue Devils to as high as a No. 4 ranking earlier this season. During this time Duke has captured two of the last three ACC tournament titles. The team looks to bring home a third title from Charlotte.
"Our goal [in the ACC tournament] is to come home the winner," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "I think, based on the regular season, we have a more than realistic possibility to do it. Our goal, really all year long, has been just to get out there, be intense, play as well as we can and let the results speak for themselves."
And the results have done just that. The Blue Devils dropped only nine points out of 49 to ACC teams this season.
The toughness of Duke's non-conference schedule gives the Blue Devils an extra edge for the tournament. Almost half of its matches were against top-20 teams.
"Our non-conference schedule is so difficult, between the [National] Team Indoors and the Blue-Gray tournament," Lapidus said. "When you play against great people and then get in against [teams] who are maybe one level below, it seems a little bit easier. It definitely helps us to play against the best teams [in the nation]."
The results of the ACC season are overwhelming. However, the team still remains in focus for the tournament, even though the Blue Devils are indisputably the heavy favorite.
"In a three-day event, where a lot of teams are very pumped up, anything can happen," Lapidus said. "We've had a couple of close matches. It's not like we totally dominated [the conference]. We definitely had an edge against everybody. But on any given day in college tennis, you can't tell what's going to happen. We need to be ready to play."
"People place so much emphasis on the ACC tournament," junior Chris Pressley said. "The level of play goes up and every team is psyched to be there. For some teams [the ACC tournament] is the last hurrah, and they're definitely pumped up. There's a lot of pride in the ACC tournament. Even though we're undefeated [in the ACC] going in, it's still a big deal to us."
One of the strong points this year for the Blue Devils has been the doubles play. The three doubles matches count for one point in the match, and the confidence from gaining that doubles point has been good for the team.
"If we can get the doubles point under our belt, I feel good going into singles," Lapidus said. "If we're up 1-0, we can at least split the singles [to win the match.]"
Following the outstanding doubles play has been incredible depth in singles play. The lineup has varied throughout the season, but has been led by Pressley, the nation's seventh-ranked singles player, at the No. 1 slot. Sophomores Rob Chess and Peter Ayers have been solid at the second and third positions. Junior Philippe Moggio has also been a strong competitor for Duke at the No. 5 slot.
Sophomore Jordan Murray has seen time at No. 4 and 5, but suffered from a back injury in late March. He played against Clemson this past Saturday after a three-week lapse and lost in a heated three-setter. He should be set to play for the tournament, though.
"[Jordan] is not having any pain in his back right now," Lapidus said. "His conditioning obviously suffered a little bit and he was a little rusty [during the Clemson match]. Hopefully he'll be playing pretty sharp by this weekend."
The freshmen for the Duke team have provided a great deal of force at the lower positions. Adam Gusky is a regular at the No. 4 slot and Sven Koehler has played impressively as the sixth seed. The freshmen also team up for a powerful No. 3 doubles.
"Adam's really come around nicely the last half of the season," Lapidus said. "He was a little hindered early in the year after suffering an ankle sprain [in the fall]. He's moving well now. His attitude is getting better, in terms of being more positive on the court about himself."
While Duke teams over the past few years have done remarkably well, this team has a unique mental edge that has helped it to pull out many close matches.
"This team has a lot of fight and a lot of desire," Lapidus said. "I think [this team] is mentally stronger than any team I've had. They have a lot of belief in themselves. Even when we lose a tough first set, I feel like our guys will fight back in the second set and still get a win."
This mental toughness may just be the key to another ACC title for the Blue Devils. Duke is undoubtedly the team to beat, but the Devils will be ready for any team that tries to spoil its victory plans.
"Hopefully the intensity will be high, and if it is, and we're playing well and remain injury-free, we have a good shot at taking the title," Lapidus said.
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