GAINESVILLE, Fla. - This year's match had last year's results.
Meeting in the semifinals for the second consecutive season, No. 3 seed Amy Jensen and Amanda Augustus of California again knocked off No. 2 Vanessa Webb and Karen Goldstein, 6-4, 6-1 at Linder Stadium last Thursday, on the way to winning their second straight NCAA doubles crown.
"We were ready for a big long fight today," Augustus said. "This is definitely the best we've played in the tournament. I think our goal was to get back to the final. We're happy this match was done in two sets. I'm really surprised with that."
Unlike last year when the unseeded Bears upset Duke's duo in three sets, this match was never hotly contested. Jensen and Augustus were able to keep the attack-minded Blue Devils away from the net, limiting volleys and forcing Duke to find another way to win the match.
But Webb and Goldstein never found that way.
"The key is that you have to keep the ball away from them [at the net] as much as possible and try to hit it where they aren't," Augustus said. "You have to play aggressive against them. If you let them take over at the net, then they can play really well."
However, getting to the net was not the match's primary concern at first-getting a serve in was.
Neither team was able to hold serve in the first six games, and only once did the serving team manage to push the game to deuce. Then, in the seventh game, Augustus pushed the Bears out to a 40-love advantage and then closed out the game two points later, staking California to a 4-3 lead.
Augustus and Jensen would not lose a service game the rest of the match.
But the duo kept up their aggressive return strategy, constantly testing the Blue Devils down the line and keeping Duke's top team on their heels.
"Going down the line] really made a difference because it's something not a lot of players do and something we don't see a whole lot," Webb said. "We had to play defense after serving.
"We should be able to hold serve here or we don't deserve to win anyway."
After claiming the first set it was clear that this match wouldn't be a replay of the lone meeting between these two teams at the Rolex Indoors, a match won handily by Webb and Goldstein.
"They were just more aggressive," Webb said. "They made us hit a lot of balls this time and they just played better."
California broke Goldstein in the second game of the second set and it proved to be all that Augustus and Jensen would need. The duo rolled to a 6-1 second set victory and unceremoniously ended the career of Duke's greatest women's tennis player.
"I was sad after the team [competition], I cried a lot," Webb said. "But now I'm really ready to move on. I love Duke, and I'd never trade my time here for anything, but it's time to move on."
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