After squeezing by Clemson with a tight 4-3 victory on Saturday, the men's tennis team won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title in decisive fashion on Sunday, crushing Georgia Tech 6-1 in Atlanta, Ga.
"Winning the regular season is especially gratifying this year because of all of the injuries," coach Jay Lapidus said. "If you had told me at the beginning of the season that we would still be ranked No. 12 and go undefeated in the conference after losing two of our best players so early, I wouldn't have believed you."
Although Georgia Tech (12-9, 5-3 in the ACC) is ranked only No. 40 in the nation, Duke (16-6, 8-0) came to Atlanta prepared for a tough match. The previous day, the Yellow Jackets pulled out a surprise victory over North Carolina, and were looking to move up in the ACC standings.
"They were on a little bit of a high after beating UNC," Lapidus said.
Matt Cozad gave Georgia Tech its lone point of the match with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory at No. 3 singles over sophomore Dmitry Muzyka.
Muzyka is continuing his comeback from an injury to his left foot after spending much of the spring season on the injured list along with senior Sven Koehler. Muzyka was ahead 5-2 in the final set and seemingly en route to winning the match when Cozad rallied.
"[Muzyka's] not at 100 percent yet," freshman Porter Jones said. "He should have won the match but I don't know what happened."
Since Duke won every other point, Muzyka's loss had little impact on the overall score. Senior Adam Gusky defeated Ken Powell 6-4, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot in his final regular season match. Freshman Doug Root won easily over B.J. Traub, 7-6, 6-1 in the No. 1 singles match., ending a five-match losing streak.
"Doug played the way he was playing a few weeks ago," Lapidus said. "He's back on the right track."
Duke opened the match by capturing the doubles point, winning two out of the three matches. The No. 1 doubles team of Root and sophomore Jordan Wile, ranked seventh nationally, disposed of the Yellow Jacket team of Benjamin Cassaigne and Tim Bibby 8-6.
The No. 2 team of Jones and Gusky dropped their match 8-2 to Traub and Cozad, but Muzyka and junior Alberto Brause won 8-6 at No. 3 over Markus Magnusson and Matt Lee to secure the doubles point.
The Blue Devils also won the doubles point the previous day versus No. 23 Clemson in Clemson, S.C. Facing the stiffer competition of the Tigers (15-9, 5-2), the point held more significance.
"They're a strong team." Lapidus said. "Coming off of our close win against Carolina, it was a really emotional match."
After the No. 1 team of Wile and Root won 8-3 and the No. 2 team of Gusky and Jones lost 8-3, the point came down to the Muzyka and Brause in the last doubles match. Brause, unaccustomed to playing doubles for Duke, was filling in for Sebastien Gobbi, who was resting a sore shoulder. The pair eventually pulled off a 9-7 win to give Duke the 1-0 lead going into singles play.
"We came away with the doubles point, but it was close," Jones said. "That gave us a boost for the rest of the match."
Showing the caliber of their team in singles play, the Tigers won in straight sets at the top three singles spots. Mitch Sprengelmeyer, ranked No. 13 in the country, won 6-2, 6-2 over Root at No. 1 singles.
Alberto Brause, ranked No. 31 nationally, lost his match 6-4, 6-4 to Clemson's Bruce Li, who he had defeated earlier in the season.
Duke returned the favor at the No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 spots, as Gusky, Wile and Jones respectively came through in their matches. Winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 over Magnusson, Wile clinched the match.
The 4-3 victory was Duke's seventh one point win of the season and fourth in a row, following close matches over Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth and North Carolina.
"This year has aged me a lot in terms of the closeness of the matches." Lapidus said.
For the Blue Devils, the close matches are indicative of their progress as a team.
"I think a team shows it's good when they can win the tough matches," Jones said. "Right now we're on a good streak and everyone is coming together."
Duke will try to ride that streak through the ACC Tournament, as they return to Atlanta this weekend. The Blue Devils will look to extend their 14-match ACC winning streak and capture their fifth straight championship.
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