Chapel Hill usually isn't considered home for Duke, but the men's tennis team had to travel down Highway 15-501 Sunday to complete its last home match of the season, beating Virginia Commonwealth University 4-3 on Sunday at an alternate site.
Play started at Duke Tennis Stadium, but a rainstorm quickly forced the two teams to relocate indoors at the Chapel Hill Tennis Club. As a result, an identical 4-3 victory over Virginia a day earlier ended up being the Blue Devils' last true home match of the year.
With the score tied 3-3 on Sunday, the match came down to No. 2 singles, where Duke's Alberto Brause delivered a victory in straight sets, defeating No. 45 Daniel Anderson 6-4, 6-3. Brause is now Duke's highest-ranked singles player at No. 31 in the nation.
The loss to Duke (13-6 overall, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) was only the second of the season for No. 14 VCU (20-2).
"VCU is a team that is beating everyone pretty badly in our region," Duke head coach Jay Lapidus said. "This is the best win we've had all year."
Duke began the match by winning the first point in doubles competition. The number one doubles team of Root and Jordan Wile, ranked seventh nationally, took its match 8-4. Root and Wile led 7-3 before the rain delay, and quickly finished off Manuel Kropfreiter and Pascal Salasca upon arriving in Chapel Hill.
Sebastien Gobbi and sophomore Dmitry Muzyka won 8-5 in the Blue Devils' number three doubles match over Daniel Anderson and Olle Lundberg. It was Muzyka's first victory of the spring season after missing the opening seven weeks of competition with a stress fracture in his left foot.
Oliver Tauma and Richard Wernerhjelm salvaged the final doubles match for VCU with an 8-4 win over freshman Porter Jones and senior Adam Gusky.
VCU picked up its first point of the afternoon when No. 18 Tauma disposed of No. 41 Root 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 1 singles match.
The Blue Devils led 3-1 after Gusky and Wile defeated their opponents at number four and number five singles, respectively, but the lead would prove short-lived. Jones lost at number six singles, and Muzyka-in his first singles competition since the injury-fell 7-6, 6-2, to Wernerhjelm at number three to even the match.
That set up Brause, whose victory over Anderson made Duke a perfect 15-0 all-time against Virginia Commonwealth.
In its last complete match at home, Duke also went down to the wire on Saturday, when Gusky sealed the victory over Virginia with a straight-set triumph over Hyon Yoo, preserving the Blue Devils' 11-match conference winning streak.
Duke, winner of the last four ACC titles, is taking the winning streak in stride.
"Some of the teams are challenging, but we're expected to beat most of the teams in the ACC," head coach Jay Lapidus said.
The 25th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers (12-6 overall, 3-2) were truly one of the challenging teams as they came out strong and surprised the Blue Devils by winning the doubles point. After Duke's No. 2 team of Jones and Gusky cruised to an 8-0 victory over Bear Schofield and Yoo, the Blue Devils dropped both of their remaining doubles matches.
"We looked a little flat in doubles," Lapidus said. "We didn't have much intensity."
Cavaliers Scott Lebovitz and Justin Smith upset the No. 1 team of Root and Wile, 9-7.
The No. 3 doubles match was highlighted for Duke by the return of Muzyka. Muzyka was not at full strength, however, as he and Gobbi lost their match 9-8 in a tiebreaker to Kent Koch and John Winter.
"[Muzyka's return] is a big lift for us emotionally and physically," Lapidus said. "Just having his presence is a lift."
Duke fell further behind in singles, as Root was upset by Lebovitz 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1. Gobbi also fell at No. 6, but after that, the Blue Devils began to turn the match around and pick up momentum.
Brause led the charge with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Schofield at No. 2. And when Wile and Jones won in straight sets at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, the match came down to Gusky. Gusky, a returning All-ACC player, had lost only one conference match in his four-year career with the Blue Devils.
Gusky handled Yoo 7-5, 6-3 for his fifth straight singles victory, and a strong farewell in what would turn out to be his final home performance.
"He's come through for us in so many big matches in the past that it's fitting that he did it again in his last home match in the conference," Lapidus said.
At the time, of course, Gusky was unaware that it would be his last complete home match. Sunday's trip to Chapel Hill was unplanned, but Duke will return there on Wednesday to face North Carolina, the last ACC team to beat the Blue Devils.
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