CHAPEL HILL--When the North Carolina men's tennis team's freshmen came to school last fall, they asked their teammates which matches they should look forward to.
The upperclassmen didn't have to think too long about that one: "The Duke match," they told the five newcomers.
Well, the Tar Heels had to wait eight months, but in the end, it was worth it. On Wednesday afternoon, UNC put together its best performance of the year and shocked the 11th-ranked Blue Devils 4-3 at the Cone-Kenfield indoor tennis center in Chapel Hill. The match was moved indoors because of rain, and it lasted nearly five hours.
The loss was Duke's first in the Atlantic Coast Conference since the Blue Devils fell to UNC in the finals of the 1992 ACC tournament. The Blue Devils had won 26 straight ACC contests.
"You've got to hand it to them," Duke head coach Jay Lapidus said. "They played a really good match--they were much more emotional than us. They were just hungrier.
"On a given day, anything can happen. They had a good crowd that made a lot of noise, and they played great."
The 40th-ranked Tar Heels, who opened the season by struggling to a 5-7 record, improved to 12-8 and 5-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke dropped to 16-4 and 5-1 in the ACC.
"Since I've been here, we hadn't beaten Duke," said UNC junior David Caldwell, who defeated senior Chris Pressley in a long three-setter at No. 1 singles. "I think everyone on the team felt we had worked too hard to go through the season without a great winÉThe Duke match is probably our biggest dual match."
UNC junior Brint Morrow clinched the victory with his three-set win over Duke's Rob Chess at No. 2 singles. That gave UNC an insurmountable 4-1 lead and sent the Tar Heels and their fans into a noisy celebration.
But long before that, there were signs that this might not be the Blue Devils' day.
In the doubles, Duke's No. 3 team of Pressley and junior Nick Walrod won a quick 8-3 decision over UNC freshmen Robert Tedesco and David Britt, but at No. 1, Duke juniors Peter Ayers and Chess were beaten 8-4 by Caldwell and Morrow.
That meant the doubles point would be decided by the No. 2 match, where at one point UNC's Paul Harsanyi and Tony Thomas held a commanding 7-2 lead over senior Philippe Moggio and sophomore Adam Gusky. But the Blue Devils broke Thomas, and then two games later broke Harsanyi before Moggio held his serve to cut the deficit to 7-6.
Then Duke jumped out to a 0-40 lead on Thomas' serve and appeared ready to even the match. But the Tar Heel freshman hit a pair of aces and evened the game at deuce, and after four more deuces, UNC won it on Thomas' volley winner.
"We came out a little lackadaisical, and that affected us." Moggio said. "I thought we were going to come back, because we had three break points and all the momentum."
It was only the third time all year that Duke had lost the critical doubles point.
"Going into it, we knew that Duke played great doubles," UNC head coach Sam Paul said. "I think our winning the doubles point was definitely key."
In singles, UNC grabbed a quick 2-0 lead when Britt whipped sophomore Sven Koehler 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6. Duke took its first point at No. 5 when Moggio came back from a set down to beat Thomas, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Then came a pair of devastating losses for the Blue Devils. At No. 1, Pressley, ranked 21st in the NCAA, won the first set 6-3 from his friend Caldwell, the No. 8 player in the nation.
But Caldwell turned things around in the second set. He broke Pressley--who had been dominating with his big first serve and penetrating groundstrokes--to take a 4-3 lead. He went on to win the set 6-4, then cruised to a 6-2 third-set win to take the match.
"I don't know what happened to Chris," Lapidus said. "I don't know if he was tired, but it wasn't Chris out there in the third set."
Pressley had beaten Caldwell in their last three collegiate meetings.
"Even though we're good friends off the court, we had a good, competitive battle," Caldwell said. "I played better as the match went on."
It was then only a matter of seconds before Morrow would clinch the match against Chess. He held a 5-0 third-set lead when Caldwell's forehand winner defeated Pressley.
In that No. 2 match, Chess had won the first set, and he served for the match at 5-4 in the second. But Morrow saved three match points and evened the set. Chess went up 6-5 and served for the match once more, but Morrow again broke the sophomore's big serve to take it to a tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker, Chess opened up a 5-4 lead and had a chance to serve it out. But he double-faulted twice, and one point later, Morrow won it 7-5.
In the third set, Morrow blanked Chess to clinch the match.
"When I got it to a breaker, I knew I could win," Morrow said. "Once I won the set, his confidence was so low."
The Blue Devils did win the remaining two matches to make the final score close. Gusky won 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 over Tedesco, while Ayers downed Harsanyi, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. But it was too little, too late.
"I don't think we came in overconfident," Moggio said. "They played as fired up as they can get. This was huge for them."
Duke will try to rebound this weekend, but it won't be easy. The Blue Devils travel to Georgia Tech on Saturday and Clemson on Sunday, and both teams are among the ACC's best. Then comes the ACC tournament and another possible shot at the Tar Heels.
"Sometimes losing, if you take it in the right manner, can help you," Lapidus said. "Hopefully, this will help us."
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