The men's tennis team has dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference over the past few years.
If this weekend's results at the ACC Indoors in Clemson, S.C., show any indication about how the rest of the 1996 season will progress, the Blue Devils should continue their reign in the league.
Senior Peter Ayers and freshman Dmitry Muzyka downed the competition in their respective brackets, advancing to play each other in the finals. Due to time constraints, however, the finals were not played, so Ayers and Muzyka were declared co-champions.
"Dmitry ended up beating [teammate Sven Koehler] in the semifinals," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "It was a great match. Dmitry and Sven both played unbelievably well. It was really great to see.
"Peter made it through, and beat the second-seeded guy from Clemson, Mitch Sprenglemeyer, and ended up getting to the finals. [Dmitry and Peter] did great, and Sven did great. Those were definitely the three guys from singles who stood out."
Muzyka continued his strong play in the doubles portion of the Indoors, pairing with Koehler to claim the championship of the doubles as well. On their route to the tournament victory, the duo defeated two of the top-10 teams in the nation. Sprenglemeyer and Bruce Li of Clemson, the seventh-ranked doubles team, fell to the Blue Devils on Saturday, while the Duke tandem finished off the No. 8 team, Michael Stump and Daniel Merkert, from Wake Forest, 6-3, 6-2, to take the championship on Sunday.
"They played unbelievably well," Lapidus said of Muzyka and Koehler's doubles play.
In the consolation round of the singles bracket, sophomore Ramin Pejan advanced to the finals, winning four matches. Pejan fell to the No. 2 seed in the tournament in the opening round of the tournament.
While the team headed into the ACC Indoors with high hopes of having a good showing, the team even exceeded Lapidus' expectations.
"I didn't expect the domination that we did [achieve]," Lapidus said. "We weren't worried too much about the results, but we played unbelievably well."
Muzyka continued to show that he will be a force to be reckoned with in the ACC this season, but Lapidus was also pleased with several other of his players' performances.
"Dmitry just played so well," Lapidus said. "I hadn't really seen him play at that level before. It's really incredible. Sven continued the way he played at the Rolex--just so strong. It was great to see Peter break through and have a run at the tournament. It was really positive all the way around."
Senior Rob Chess, ranked No. 15 in the nation, sat out of singles play at the ACC Indoors in order to be fully rested for the National Individual Indoors in Dallas, Texas, on Feb. 8-11. Chess received an invitation to the National Indoors due to his play in the fall and his ranking, while Koehler won the Rolex Regional Qualifier in November to join his teammate at the Indoors in Texas.
The Blue Devils open match play on Feb. 15 and 17, facing Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth, respectively.
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