Of all the things the women's tennis team might have lost from last year's squad, its flair for the dramatic is not one of them.
Tied at three after singles, the No. 9 Blue Devils (6-3) rallied to win No. 2 and No. 3 doubles and claim their sixth win of the season, knocking off host Miami (4-2) 5-4 in a dramatic five hour marathon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center Sunday.
"It wasn't a great match for us because almost nobody really played up to their abilities," Duke's No. 2 seed Erica Biro said. "But we pulled it together when it counted, and that's what's important."
It was the third time this season that the Blue Devils have entered the doubles' points tied three all, and just as in their January match with Washington and their later match with Ohio State, head coach Jamie Ashworth's team responded.
Junior Kathy Sell, Duke's scrappy on-court leader, and freshman Katie Granson set the tone for the Blue Devils, surging past Miami's Meredith Laughlin and Eva Jiminez 8-5 at No. 3 doubles.
That three-game edge would seem like an all out whitewash compared to the rest of the doubles scores.
"They set the momentum," Biro said. "That left the two teams out there, and we knew we could get it done from there."
But Biro and Brooke Siebel faltered at No. 1 doubles, falling 9-7.
"Thank God I didn't decide the match," said Biro, who lost both of her matches on the day. "That's why we're a team."
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, junior Megan Miller and freshman Hillary Adams were in the middle of pulling a south-Florida-style Houdini act.
After trailing 5-2 early in the match, Miller and Adams slowly began clawing their way back into the No. 2 doubles match. Behind the hard-serving Adams and the baseline play of Miller, the Blue Devil duo finally caught Miami's Katia Bogomolova and Alanna Broderick at eight games all, forcing a tiebreak for the match.
And they wasted little time in making sure that the marathon match ended in a Duke blue surge.
The two Blue Devils quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead, silencing the rowdy crowd on hand and putting Duke well on its way to its first win since National Team Indoors last weekend.
"Megan and Hillary were in a zone; there was no chance for the other team in the tiebreak," Biro said. "They got their stuff together out there; it was really impressive."
But there wouldn't be a great deal of celebration on the return trip after squeezing by the nation's 31st-ranked team.
"It was ridiculous; it was so shocking," Biro said of the match. "We went in there expecting a walkover. We probably should've beaten them better than we did. We're a lot better team. I couldn't tell you what happened, but we did pull it through."
And nobody had a hard time figuring out that with the heated rivalry with Florida ready to begin again at Duke Tennis Stadium Saturday, just pulling it out is a big order.
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