Even without their No. 1 player on Saturday, the only challenge for the fourth-ranked Blue Devils this weekend was avoiding the weather.
The women's tennis team furthered its record to 14-3, 4-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference after a pair of victories this weekend against Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Saturday's match against the unranked Yellow Jackets was a 9-0 sweep for the Blue Devils. With freshman Vanessa Webb sitting out for a rest, sophomore Laura Zifer played her first match at the No. 1 position.
"I was really excited, but kind of nervous," Zifer said. "Then I found out I was playing the same girl I played last year at No. 4, so that eased the pressure."
Zifer showed no signs of buckling under pressure on the court, as she won the first set while losing only one service break. Her opponent, Heather Wimberly, tried to come back in the second, but Zifer's serving power was too much for her. Zifer pounded numerous service winners and aced Wimberly twice.
"Laura's been playing really well," head coach Jody Hyden said. "I felt she could handle the situation [at the No. 1 position] and she did."
Freshman Kristin Sanderson's match at the No. 2 position provided the best competition of the day. Sanderson fell to an early 3-0 deficit against Tech's Xenia Uy, and had to pull herself mentally out of this tough position.
"I started out slow-I just wasn't moving well," Sanderson said. "I also put too much pressure on myself and I had to stop thinking about that and concentrate on the match."
Sanderson made a dramatic comeback by using her advantage in net play to break Uy and hold her serve. She climbed back to win the first set, and then bludgeoned her in the second, taking a straight-set victory 6-4, 6-3.
The rest of Duke's singles lineup crushed the Yellow Jackets without dropping a set.
With the Blue Devils' 71st consecutive ACC victory assured, the three doubles matches were shortened to pro-sets. Sanderson was involved in another close contest, as she and sophomore Ellen McCance pulled out a victory in a tiebreaker in their first match together.
Duke's Sunday match was moved to the North Carolina Indoor Tennis Facility due to a chance of bad weather. The Blue Devils' play certainly wasn't cloudy, as they stormed past the 25th-ranked Seminoles, winning all six of its singles matches in straight sets. Webb returned to the No. 1 position and defeated Lori Sowell, ranked 41st in the country. Zifer and Sanderson won the second and third spots, respectively, and junior Wendy Fix bageled FSU's Sasha Hanna in the No. 4 position.
The Blue Devils won the match 8-1, dropping only the No. 1 doubles spot to the Seminoles' Sowell and Elke Juul. Zifer and Fix, the fifth-ranked doubles team in the nation, lost their concentration as their focus slipped from the match.
"We were just very stale in doubles," Fix said. "We need to work on a change, because right now if one person's off, the other gets off too. We need to work on being there for each other."
Florida State defaulted the No. 3 doubles match due to an injury to Ashley Delaney.
The back-to-back victories this weekend will boost the Blue Devils' standing before the ACC Tournament on April 18.
"We still have four more ACC matches to go," Hyden said. "We have a lot of work to do, but our team is fresh. This weekend's matches demonstrate our depth and good play."
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