After losing to Notre Dame Thursday, the men's tennis team regrouped and decided to forget about results and rankings and just concentrate on playing.
The new outlook worked, as Duke (9-4, 3-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) soundly defeated Georgia Tech, 5-2, and Texas Christian, 6-1, over the weekend.
"I think we were really concerned with results before," sophomore Doug Root said. "We had a team meeting and discussed that we were going to just go out there and do our best, and I think it took a lot of pressure off us."
The confidence especially showed in doubles play against TCU (6-6) on Sunday. After losing the doubles point for two consecutive matches, the Blue Devils got the first point Sunday behind an easy 8-2 win from the No. 2 doubles team of junior Jordan Wile and freshman Ramsey Smith, and a 9-7 victory by freshman Ted Rueger and sophomore Porter Jones at No. 3.
The combination of Rueger and Jones was a new one, as Rueger had played with junior Sebastien Gobbi for the previous four matches. Duke coach Jay Lapidus was pleased with the pair's performance and intends to play them together in the Blue Devils' future matches.
"When we win that doubles point, we're hard to beat," Lapidus said. "We'd been having trouble finding solidity at our doubles. Today we looked good, so hopefully we can stay.... We have a lot of players who can play-a lot of good doubles players, but we had to get the combination that I thought really clicked, and hopefully we have it."
The Horned Frogs gained their sole point at No. 1 singles. After two and a half hours of play and several highly contested calls, 30th-ranked Esteban Carrill upset No. 13 Root, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Senior Alberto Brause also put in a hard fought battle at the No. 2 spot, pulling out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Trace Fielding.
Duke opened the singles action with straight-set wins at No. 4 and No. 6. Wile downed Scott Eddins, 6-3, 6-4, and freshman Andres Pedroso dispatched Sebastian Iannariello, 6-3, 6-2.
Junior Dmitry Muzyka clinched the overall win with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Martin Jirak. Muzyka had moved from No. 2 to No. 3 singles after the loss to Notre Dame. The move was apparently beneficial-Muzyka won both of his matches over the weekend.
"Dmitry, at No. 3, took a couple steps up in his level," Lapidus said. "He was really much more aggressive, and I was really pleased with that. He's a big part of our success, and he really sort of stepped it up after the Notre Dame match."
Smith garnered his eighth-consecutive match win, defeating Jaideep Shetty, 6-3, 7-6. With the victory, Smith improved his team-leading season record to 24-5.
After losing at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to give Georgia Tech (8-7, 0-2 in the ACC) the doubles point Saturday, the Blue Devils won five of six singles matches. Muzyka recorded a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 win over Matt Cozad to give Duke a 3-2 lead, and the Blue Devils never looked back.
Root subsequently clinched the match in another close contest, managing a straight-set win over Tre' Harris, 6-4, 7-6.
The Blue Devils' only singles loss Saturday came from Wile, who lost to Roberto Suarez, 1-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Brause, Smith and freshman Marko Cerenko also nailed down victories at No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively.
Duke next faces 26th-ranked South Alabama Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. at Duke Tennis Stadium.
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