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Men's team
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Blue Devil dynasties: Tennis teams capture ACC titles**
By ALLISON CREEKMORE
CHARLOTTE -- The men's tennis team gained its second consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title on April 24 at the Renaissance Park Tennis Center. But it wasn't easy.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets gave the Blue Devils a scare during the championship match, but eighth-ranked Duke pulled out a 4-1 victory.
The first two rounds of the tournament were fairly easy for the Blue Devils (20-5), who easily defeated N.C. State and Clemson to reach Sunday's final.
While those matches were routine and uneventful, the championship match was unpredictable and exciting. The Yellow Jackets came into the final determined to upset the defending champions and they nearly succeeded. In doubles, sophomores Peter Ayers and Rob Chess faced Georgia Tech's Rob Givone and Scott Cotton at the No. 1 slot. The Blue Devils were up 5-1, and Ayers and Chess held on to capture the match 8-6.
Freshmen Adam Gusky and Sven Koehler then lost 8-6 to Yellow Jackets Paul Stevens and B.J. Traub at the third position.
Following the tough loss at No. 3, the doubles point was left to be determined by the No. 2 matchup. Duke's Chris Pressley and Philippe Moggio squared off against Joe Nickels and Mark Ottinger. The teams traded games until the duo of Pressley and Moggio finally achieved a service break during the last game, clinching the doubles point for Duke, 9-7.
"We were kind of coasting at [Nos.] 1 and 3," head coach Jay Lapidus said, "But then it started sliding away a little bit on us. We held it together, though."
The fight was hardly over for Duke. Pressley cruised at No. 1, dominating 39th-ranked Givone 6-2, 6-1. But Tech came back to gain its only point of the day at the No. 5 slot, as Traub defeated Jordan Murray 7-5, 6-2.
Gusky pulled his back muscle during the end of his doubles match, leaving a hole in the lineup for Duke at the No. 4 slot. At the last minute, Lapidus moved up Moggio and Murray, inserting Koehler into the No. 6 position against Georgia Tech's Nickels.
The pair at No. 6 split the first two sets, and Nickels rallied in the third set after being down 5-3 to force a tiebreaker. Koehler eventually picked up the emotional third point for the Blue Devils, outlasting Nickels 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3).
"That was a great win for [Sven]," Ayers said. "He's had some ups and downs this year and in the biggest match of the year he comes up with a win."
The remaining three matches at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 had all gone to three sets when Koehler's was ending. The Yellow Jackets kept it close, but with the win at No. 6, the Blue Devils needed just one more match to take the title.
Chess battled with Cotton at No. 2, while Ayers and Stevens fought at No. 3. But it was to be Moggio, playing at No. 4, who captured the match and the ACC tournament title for Duke. He outlasted Ottinger 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. The two remaining matches were stopped, and the Blue Devils celebrated.
"I was a little down after losing the first set," Moggio said. "Then I saw a couple of breaks and got back into it. In the end, it was just a good feeling [to clinch the match]."
The tournament title was the third title in the past four years for Duke, but winning never seems to get old.
"It always feels really good [to win this tournament]," Lapidus said. "The guys are out here fighting tooth and nail, and I think our toughness has been a big part of our success this year."
Pressley was awarded with the Most Valuable Player honors, clinching the first two matches for the Blue Devils and breezing through all his singles matches in straight sets.
"Something that made [this win] special was the MVP," Pressley said. "That's a big award. I was working really hard, and everything turned out great."
NOTE: The men's tennis team received one of eight at-large bids to the NCAA tournament, which means it will not have to compete in regional play this weekend. Duke is seeded fifth in the 16-team NCAA tournament, which will be held May 21-24 in South Bend, Ind.
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