When the Blue Devils lost 4-3 to Texas in March, it was clear to Duke that this was not the same Longhorn team it had beaten 5-2 in the fall.
The Longhorns had changed their lineup around to match up better with Duke. Since then, the Blue Devils have been giving other teams a taste of their own medicine.
This weekend, the Blue Devils (16-4, 7-0 in the ACC) used two radically different singles lineups on the road against No. 64 Georgia Tech and No. 24 Clemson, winning both matches easily in 6-1 decisions.
Prior to the Blue Devils' road trip to Texas, the lineup had remained completely static this season, with Doug Root playing No. 1 singles as he has for the past two years, transfer student Pedro Escudero at No. 2 and Dmitry Muzyka at No. 3.
Starting with an easy Maryland match, coach Jay Lapidus changed the lineup around and hasn't stopped tinkering since. Duke hasn't lost since the trip to Texas, compiling an 11-match winning streak and a 22-match conference winning streak.
"[Lapidus] decided it would be a good idea to move things around a lot so people wouldn't know what was coming," Root said. "We're so deep this year that we can do that."
The last conference team to beat Duke was, in fact, Clemson in the ACC championship match in 1997, and the Blue Devils are still in the process of exacting revenge.
"We have a lot of new guys on the team that didn't experience the loss in 1997," Root said. "We let them know how terrible it was to lose then and how we didn't want it to happen again."
Duke swept the doubles matches against both Clemson (18-9, 5-1) and Georgia Tech (10-6, 3-2), with the new combination of Ramsey Smith and Porter Jones playing at the No. 3 doubles spot. With their victory against the Tigers, the Blue Devils took over sole possession of first place in the ACC.
Root, ranked No. 21 in the country, was the only Blue Devil to lose a match against the Yellow Jackets, falling to No. 41 Benjamin Cassigne at the No. 1 singles slot.
Muzyka then played No. 1 singles against Clemson, defeating Ryan Bauer in straight sets.
Ramsey Smith lost the lone Duke point against the Tigers, when he was defeated 7-6, 6-4 by Tomasz Boniecki at No. 4 singles. Marko Cerenko had a particularly hard-fought match at No. 6 singles, eventually putting away Bradley Emendorfer, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4.
The Blue Devils face North Carolina tomorrow in Chapel Hill and Virginia Saturday at Duke Tennis Stadium as they attempt to complete a perfect record in the ACC.
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