The eighth-ranked men's tennis team, competing without its number one singles player, went 1-2 over the weekend at the National Team Indoor Championship in a tournament which was marred by key injuries for the Blue Devils.
Duke, which is now 2-3 on the season, beat No. 9 Kansas on Thursday, 4-0, but fell to second-ranked UCLA on Friday by an identical score. The Blue Devils then lost to No. 33 Illinois on Saturday, 4-1.
"We came out tied for seventh in a big national tournament," coach Jay Lapidus said. "I think we did well considering the circumstances. We beat Kansas handily without our number one player, and that's really impressive. Against UCLA we fought hard and had a lot of close matches. It's difficult to lose players and stay competitive at this level."
Sophomore Dmitry Muzyka, ranked 18th nationally and Duke's top singles player, suffered a stress fracture in his foot in his doubles match against Kansas. He continued to play until his match was suspended when the Blue Devils won the other two doubles contests to garner the point. Subsequent x-rays revealed Muzyka will likely be out six to eight weeks.
His presence was missed against the Bruins, as Duke quickly fell behind in the doubles matches. After UCLA's Matt Breen and Alex Decret defeated senior Adam Gusky and freshman Porter Jones, 8-4, at No. 3 doubles, the Blue Devils had to concede their match in the No. 2 spot when senior Sven Koehler went down with a wrist injury.
"Obviously, the results were devastating from the tournament in terms of injuries," Lapidus said. "I've never been in a situation where I've lost two top players in two days. We're going to have to pick up the pieces in the next couple of weeks."
The bright spot on the day for Duke was its top doubles tandem of freshman Doug Root and sophomore Jordan Wile, ranked 17th in the country, which upset the Bruins' Kevin Kim and Eric Lin, who are No. 7 nationally and recently won the doubles competition at the National Indoor Tournament, 8-6. But the win wasn't enough for the Blue Devils as UCLA captured the doubles point by winning two out of the three matches.
"[Root and Wile] are quickly establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the country," Lapidus said. "The amount of improvement they've shown this season is amazing. They've been a big positive for us."
In singles, Duke's top two players fell to lower-ranked opponents, with No. 47 Root losing to the Bruins' unranked Eric Taino, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, and No. 59 junior Alberto Brause falling to No. 62 Decret, 6-4, 6-1. UCLA's Brandon Kramer knocked off Blue Devil junior Ramin Pejan, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 6 singles to complete the sweep.
Wile managed the only singles win against Illinois on Saturday, defeating Matt Snyder, 6-3, 6-2, in the fifth slot. Brause, Jones and Pajan, in numbers two, four and six, respectively, all fell to their Illini opponents in straight sets.
Root and Wile finished the tournament undefeated, knocking off Illinois' Jerry Turek and Brady Blain, 8-3, but it was Duke's only doubles win, as the Illini took the other two matches to garner the point. With Koehler out, Gusky and Jones moved up to No. 2 doubles, where they just fell short against Gavin Sontag and Jeff Laski, 9-7. Brause and Pejan, filling in for Koehler, lost to Jakub Teply and Oliver Freelove, 8-5.
"I think we got a little discouraged with the situation," Lapidus said. "It just got to be too much against Illinois. They're a good indoors team and they just blew us out of the water in the singles."
Duke, who will host Kentucky on Mar. 4, hopes to get Koehler back in the next 10 days. In the meantime, Lapidus said, he'll shuffle his lineup to try to find the best combinations.
"We're going to have to have people step up in singles who haven't played that much before," he said. "We have a deep team so it's not the end of the world. We'll still win matches, we're just going to have to improvise."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.