Sorry, Atlantic Coast Conference. The Duke women's tennis team is not yet ready to be dethroned.
Despite boasting a No. 4 national ranking, Wake Forest was unable to do what no team has done since 1989--win an ACC match against Duke. The ninth-ranked Blue Devils traveled to Winston-Salem and edged the Demon Deacons in a 5-4 marathon that lasted nearly six hours. Duke improved its record to 12-4 (4-0 in the ACC), while Wake Forest fell to 13-3 (2-1 in the ACC).
"It came down to the wire," Duke senior co-captain Monica Mraz said. "This year, Wake was really out to beat us. They thought this was their year.
"But everybody on our team knows about Duke's domination of the ACC, and we don't want it to end. It was an exciting match."
Duke led 4-2 after the singles competition, but it was by no means a secure lead.
In each of the three doubles matches, the teams split the first two sets. And with the second and third courts still early in their third sets, the No. 1 match between Duke's Mraz and Lyons and Wake's Maggie Harris and Dana Evans became a true nailbiter.
The Duke duo opened up a 5-3 lead in the third, and they had two chances to break the Demon Deacons' serve and win the match. But each of the Duke players missed a volley on a match point, and Wake survived to play another game.
Now up 5-4, Mraz had a chance to serve it out, and again Duke held a match point. But once again, Wake staved off elimination and tied the third set at 5-5.
After trading games, the match went into a tiebreaker.
"We've been around the block a couple of times," said Mraz, who has teamed with Lyons in countless high-pressure situations. "I felt pressure and knew the importance of the match, but I also felt the nerves of our opponents."
Despite Duke's wealth of experience, the Demon Deacons opened up a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker. That left Lyons serving simply to keep her team alive.
"I was just hoping not to double fault," Lyons said. "That would have been very embarrassing. I'd been serving terribly to the [ad] side of the court the whole match.
"But [the Wake player] must have been kind of nervous, too. Her return almost hit the fence, so we kind of lucked out."
The Blue Devils then went on to win the last two points, and with it gave the team an insurmountable 5-2 lead.
As it turned out, that match was critical. At No. 2 doubles, sophomore Wendy Fix and freshman Laura Zifer lost a 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 heartbreaker to Patty Murren and Lule Aydin.
And at No. 3 doubles, Wake's pair of Christina Caparis and Terry Ann Zawacki won a 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 decision over Duke freshman Ellen McCance and sophomore Karen O'Sullivan.
"We played well in singles, but we knew that doubles was important," Zifer said. "All the doubles matches were really long. They were playing well."
In the singles competition, Duke flexed its muscle at the top of the lineup. Mraz, ranked eighth in the nation, defeated No. 50 Zawacki, 6-3, 6-3.
At No. 2, the 36th-ranked Lyons crushed Evans, 6-4, 6-0, while Zifer also dominated Caparis, 6-0, 6-3.
"I lost to her in the fall, and I felt like this was my big chance to get revenge," Zifer said.
O'Sullivan lost a three-setter at No. 4, while Fix won one at No. 5. Finally, McCance lost in straight sets to Aydin in a match that started late because only five courts were available.
"It was really good to go into an ACC match and really have to gut it out," Duke head coach Jody Hyden said.
This year's Deacon team is considered its best ever, and judging by the rankings, Wake was actually favored to end Duke's 62-match ACC winning streak.
"This match was different for us, because we were the underdogs, and we've always kind of dominated the ACC," O'Sullivan said. "But rankings are hard to go by. We were fired up, and we knew we were the better team."
According to Mraz, the Rolex national rankings take into consideration match results and "a little bit of hocus-pocus." Needless to say, Wake is probably not the fourth best team in the country.
But the Deacons are still Duke's best competition in the league--as they showed on Tuesday--and the Blue Devils expect to see more of them. A rematch could be in order at the ACC tournament in late April.
"I think we would have liked to [have clinched the match] in singles to make them more nervous going into the ACCs," Lyons said.
With this conference battle behind them, the Blue Devils will now look ahead to a pair of tough non-conference matches over the weekend. Duke will host Syracuse at 2 p.m. Friday and Kentucky at 11 a.m. Sunday.
These will be the team's first two home matches of the year--a welcome change after the environment the Blue Devils faced at Wake.
"[Their players] were real intense, their coaches were real intense and their fans were real intense," Hyden said. "We went there, and I think we had one fan. But I have to give our girls credit--they stayed calm.
"I'm real proud of them. We did a super job getting the job done and getting out of there with a `W'."
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