Exactly one year ago to the day, the men's tennis team traveled to Raleigh and struggled to beat N.C. State. The Blue Devils emerged victorious, 4-3, but they had to squeak it out to earn the win.
How times have changed.
Fresh off receiving its highest ranking in school history, No. 3 Duke (15-4, 4-0 in the ACC) rolled to its ninth straight win with a 7-0 shutout over the Wolfpack (10-8, 1-3) yesterday at Duke Tennis Stadium.
"Last year we had a tough match with them," Doug Root said. "This time we came out a little bit more focused. Everybody played well, and we all fought for it."
In earning their 20th consecutive win over conference opponents, the Blue Devils had to overcome the absence of Pedro Escudero, who missed the match to nurse an elbow injury. Duke didn't miss a beat.
All three doubles pairs started off a little slowly, but two of the three bounced back. Root and Ted Rueger were playing together for the first time and started off down 2-3 at the third spot. After evening the match at 3, though, the pair broke serve and cruised to an 8-4 win. No. 1 seeded Dmitry Muzyka and Jordan Wile, ranked 24th nationally, also erased a quick 2-3 hole and won 8-5.
In singles, four of Duke's six players cruised in straight sets. Fifth-seeded Andres Pedroso bounced back from his loss at No. 2 doubles to rout Shaun Thomas, 6-3, 6-0. Root followed suit, as did Marko Cerenko, who held serve at love to clinch the match for the Blue Devils, and Porter Jones.
At that point, the only remaining drama was a pair of three-set matches. Muzyka bounced back after losing the first set and dominated the ACC's defending singles champion, Roberto Bracone, in the second and third.
Ramsey Smith, who at No. 47 is Duke's second-highest ranked singles player behind Root, had to grit out a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over unranked Keith Salmon. Smith won the last four games of the third set to seal the match.
"I was happy with the way Ramsey hung in there," coach Jay Lapidus said. "He hasn't had many tight competitive matches, and it was good to see him come through. The level of tennis was really high."
For Duke, the level of tennis remained high in almost every match. One side of each court was covered in pollen, which made the surface slippery, but footing was never much of a problem.
Instead, the nation's No. 3 team easily dispatched N.C. State, ranked a distant 48th. And despite a run through the ACC that has been less-than-difficult thus far, Duke continues to play well.
"We're working hard to stay focused," Lapidus said. "Our non-conference schedule has been so difficult. We've played almost everybody. As we get into conference play, we're not playing teams that are ranked as high but we've had the experience and know what we need to do."
Duke hits the road this weekend to take on Georgia Tech Saturday and Clemson the day after.
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