The men's tennis team ended its home season this weekend in typical fashion--by smashing a pair of visitors.
The 11th-ranked Blue Devils, who did not lose a match this year at the Duke Tennis Stadium, blasted Miami 6-1 on Saturday and Wake Forest 6-1 on Sunday to improve their record to 16-3 (5-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference).
Duke knew that Sunday's match would be routine, because the Demon Deacons are a middle-of-the-pack ACC team. But the Hurricanes worried head coach Jay Lapidus and his squad.
"They're a very dangerous team," Lapidus said.
Early on, the worries were well justified. Duke broke serve first in each of the three doubles matches, but the Hurricanes came back. At No. 2, senior Philippe Moggio and Adam Gusky lost their lead and fell 8-5 to Ray Schot and Yoni Rom.
At No. 3, senior Chris Pressley and junior Nick Walrod cruised 8-4 over Arturo Zizold and Chris Chaing, so it came down to the No. 1 doubles match to determine the point.
In that match, sophomores Rob Chess and Peter Ayers led 7-5, but Srdan Muskatirovic and Gil Kovalski broke Chess' serve and then grabbed an 8-7 lead. The Blue Devils forced a tiebreaker at 8-8, but Miami won it 7-5 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
"I think everyone was a little worried [after the doubles], because this team's so dangerous," Chess said. "They have two top-10 players, and they're solid down the line."
"When we lost the doubles point, I thought, `Oh God, this is going to be a war,"' Lapidus said. "But this is a team that when they feel responsible, they rise to the occasion."
That is exactly what the Blue Devils did in the singles, where they dominated a talented lineup of Hurricanes--a lineup that resembled a United Nations conference--to sweep the matches.
Most impressive were Duke's victories at numbers one and two. At No. 1, Pressley faced off against Muskatirovic, who was the top-ranked player in the nation following the fall season. He had dropped to No. 7 after missing some time with an injury, but early on, he was in top form.
Pressley dropped the first set 6-3, and he went down a break at 3-2 in the second. But then the Duke senior reeled off four straight games to win the second set, and he whipped Muskatirovic 6-2 in the third. Once Pressley found his rhythm, he pummeled the Hurricane with monster groundstrokes for the rest of the match.
"After I was down a break in the second, I just said, `The hell with it,"' said Pressley, ranked 21st in the NCAA. "I was a little tentative in the first set. My game is better when I'm at peace with myself and not worried about outside stuff like rankings."
At No. 2, Chess, coming off a subpar outing against N.C. State last Wednesday, found himself matched up against Kovalski, a former top-10 player who had dipped to No. 27 in the rankings.
Chess won the first set 7-5, but Kovalski came back to take the second. Then Chess, the No. 15 player in the NCAA, survived an intense battle in the third set and won the match 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in almost three hours.
"I'm exhausted," Chess said after the match. "I feel really good, because I wasn't feeling that confident against N.C. State. Now I feel much better about my game."
The Blue Devils didn't have any trouble on the rest of the courts. Ayers, Gusky, Moggio and sophomore Sven Koehler all won straight-set decisions to give Duke the 6-1 victory.
"When we lose the doubles point, there's a greater sense of urgency," Pressley said. "It really makes you focus on the task at hand. It fired us up for the singles."
On Sunday, the Blue Devils didn't really need to be fired up, as the Demon Deacons have only won one ACC match this season. Still, Duke struggled slightly.
In the doubles, Chess and Ayers won 8-5, while Pressley and Walrod won 8-6 at No. 3. But at No. 2, Moggio and Gusky's weekend slump continued, as the pair dropped an 8-5 decision to Michael Stump and James Hosie.
"In the doubles, we weren't intense," Moggio said. "Sometimes we come out a little lackadaisical or unaware."
"They're struggling a little bit right now," Lapidus said of his No. 2 team. "If they come out flat, they get upset and a little negative, and then it snowballs. We need to work on getting them to come out eager."
Still, Duke was up 1-0 entering the singles, and the Blue Devils quickly clinched the match. At No. 1, Pressley kept his momentum from Saturday and pummeled Quentin Huff, 6-0, 6-0.
"I don't think I've ever won 0-and-0 in a college match," Pressley said. "I was feeling really good coming off yesterday, and he had nothing to hurt me."
"Chris and the other guy play very similar games, but Chris does it 15 times better," Lapidus said.
The only time the match became interesting was when Pressley served at 3-0 in the second set, and Huff called a ball out that Pressley insisted was good. While Huff would not reverse the call, Pressley now had extra incentive to administer the "double-bagel."
"When he cheated me, he definitely helped me out," Pressley said. "I wanted to beat him 0-and-0 so badly."
On the other courts, Ayers, Moggio and freshman Sebastien Gobbi won easy matches at the three bottom positions. The matches at the second and third spots, however, became marathons.
Both Chess and Gusky split sets in the hot afternoon sun, and for Chess, it became his second long match in two days. In the third set, Chess went down 4-2 to a yelling, fist-pumping Stump. At one point of high frustration, Chess, who has played his share of long matches this spring, complained, "Nothing changes. It's a meaningless match, and I'm out here until the end again."
Lapidus said he needed to tell Chess--who he called the ultimate team player--to derive individual motivation instead of worrying about the team. Apparently, the strategy worked, as Chess won the final four games to take the match.
At No. 3, Gusky wasn't so fortunate. He went down 5-1 in the third set, and after winning three straight games and serving to even the set, opponent Matt Guyaux broke him to win the match.
It was Gusky's first singles loss in an outdoor match this season.
"Adam played a little bit flat and a little bit tired," Lapidus said. "But he's still won a zillion matches for us this year."
Duke will next face conference rival North Carolina Wednesday in a road match. In fact, from here on out, all of the Blue Devils' matches are on the road.
In their final weekend at the Duke Tennis Stadium, the two seniors, Pressley and Moggio, won each of their singles matches to go out with a bang in front of the large, vocal home crowds.
"It's a nice way to go out for the seniors," Lapidus said. "They're both such good kids and have done so much for the program."
"Before the match, I was a little bit sentimental," Moggio said. "But we have a lot of matches left to play, so you can't really think about it."
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