The women's tennis team continued its recent tear by dominating Virginia on Sunday.
The Blue Devils (16-4, 6-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) won their ninth straight match, beating UVa (6-7, 3-3 ACC) by a 9-0 margin at the Duke Tennis Stadium. They swept all six singles and all three doubles matches in the win.
"We played great, which is obvious from the score," freshman Laura Zifer said. "We executed everything well. We accomplished a lot of our goals. We're playing aggressive, and we're playing really well."
Zifer was one of four Duke players to win in straight sets. She knocked off her opponent at No. 3 singles, 6-2, 6-3. Senior Monica Mraz won 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles, while sophomore Wendy Fix won 7-6, 7-5 at the No. 5 spot, and freshman Ellen McCance won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.
The Blue Devils had a bit more trouble at the No. 2 and No. 4 spots. Senior Wendy Lyons came back from being down 6-3, 4-3 at second singles to defeat Jen Fiers 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. And sophomore Karen O'Sullivan was taken to three sets by her opponent at No. 4 singles before winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
"Some of the scores were straight sets, and I think those were the people that probably played a little bit sharper," head coach Jody Hyden said. "The scores that were three sets and a little bit closer matches were the ones that didn't play quite as well physically, but really played well mentally."
The team was somewhat worried about how the day's heat would affect them going into the match. The Blue Devils haven't faced much heat yet this season, but will probably have to deal with it during the remainder of the year. The players, especially those playing in the three-set matches, proved that their stamina is up to par.
"This is only the third match in any kind of heat that we've had," Hyden said. "We were better today than we were in the last two. I think that it's going to get better and better [in terms of] our conditioning and getting used to the heat."
Duke carried it's strong play over into the doubles matches, giving up no more than five games in any of the matches. The Blue Devils continued to fight hard, despite the fact that the match win was already secured.
"Our girls did a really good job of fighting," Hyden said. "I told them earlier that they had hearts like Halloween pumpkins. Skill-wise today, we weren't flashy, we weren't really sharp, but the way we fought was really good in singles. In doubles, we fought well, plus our skills were better than they have been in the last three matches. Overall, it's one of the better performances that we've had."
With the win, the women were able to keep their six-year ACC unbeaten streak alive. UVa was pumped up to play the top team in the ACC.
"Any time that you're sitting at the top of the ACC, everybody comes out fired up for you," Hyden said. "We try to look at that as a great challenge. We want teams to come out fired up. We want teams to come out and fight us hard and give us a battle because that makes us better. If teams come out and don't fight us, we don't get better."
The strong effort by the Cavaliers provided the Blue Devils with an excellent tune-up for the ACC tournament, which begins April 20. The team feels like it is gelling as the tournament nears.
"[Our coaches] say that every match is a step on the ladder, and this was another step," Zifer said. "Today we played really well. It helped us. Every match is helping us prepare for ACCs and the NCAAs, which is our main goal."
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