After playing five matches in eight days, the men's tennis team finally caught its breath and breezed by Maryland 7-0 at Duke Tennis Stadium yesterday.
The Blue Devils (11-2, 2-0 in the ACC) reinforced their No. 4 ranking by extending their current winning streak to four matches.
After narrowly defeating Kentucky three days ago, none of Duke's matches against the Terrapins were competitive, with the closest singles contest ending at 6-1, 6-4.
The Blue Devils dominated the non-scholarship Terps from the onset. Sophomore Marko Cerenko embodied Duke's win as the Atlanta native steamrolled Maryland in both doubles and singles play, dropping just a single game. With his win in singles, he extended his perfect ACC record to 9-0.
"We play a tough schedule," coach Jay Lapidus said. "There are very few matches that we know are not going to be tightly contested. This was probably the only one all year."
Sophomore Andres Pedroso, ranked 97th in the nation, played Duke's longest singles match, but the outcome did not reflect his effort. The final score was 6-1, 6-2.
Lapidus put it best by describing the entire dual match as "not a nail-biter."
The win represented the Blue Devils' third sweep in dual-match competition this season.
But things will not be so easy as Duke returns to its nail-biting schedule tomorrow when it travels to South Carolina to take on the always competitive Gamecocks. Duke will look to improve upon its 25-17 all-time record.
"We want to stay solid with doubles [against South Carolina]," Lapidus said. "That's something we have prided ourselves on this year."
Lapidus has plenty to be proud about. All three ranked doubles teams continued their winning ways yesterday, recording easy wins of 8-0, 8-2 and 8-3 over Maryland.
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