Just when the improbable comeback for the even more improbable victory seemed like a sure thing, it all ended.
After rallying from a 6-3 deficit to tie the No. 3 doubles match at 7-7, the Blue Devils' Kathy Sell and Katie Granson were blitzed in the final two games, falling to Florida's Baili Camino and Stephanie Hazlett 9-7, handing the Gators the match-clinching fifth point and their 23rd win in 25 matches against the Blue Devils Saturday afternoon.
"We had an opportunity to win it and show how good we are and we didn't," Sell said. "We had a chance and we didn't execute. That's the bottom line."
The No. 4 Gators (7-0) took a 4-2 advantage in singles, forcing the No. 7 Blue Devils (6-4) to sweep the doubles lineup as the 9:30 a.m. match entered its third hour at a cold and overcast Duke Tennis Stadium.
Duke's top two doubles teams got off to a quick start as the match again grew tense.
The Blue Devils' No. 2 doubles team of top seed Megan Miller and freshman Hillary Adams jumped out to a 5-2 lead, while Erica Biro and Brooke Siebel went up a break at 4-3.
But on court No. 3, Sell and Granson-who would later admit she was playing with a strained stomach muscle-quickly fell behind Baili Camino and Stephanie Hazlett 5-2.
Then came the rally.
The two teams traded serves to make the score 6-3 and then with the momentum beginning to swing as Siebel and Biro walked off the court with a 8-4 win, the Blue Devil duo picked up a break and held serve to pull within 6-5.
Sell and Granson forced Florida's No. 3 team to a 7-7 tie, but that's as close as the Blue Devils would come to victory.
"I was short-tempered and Katie was hurting," Sell said. "We were giving them too much at the beginning, we were frustrated. If we had gotten off to a better start, it would've been entirely different."
And maybe fittingly enough, it was Hazlett who ended the match.
A year ago it had been the then-junior's backhand winner in a third-set tiebreak against Karen Goldstein that had sent the Blue Devils packing from the national championships in Gainesville, Fla.
And in singles Saturday it was her grueling three-set victory that in all likelihood was the game-clincher.
After the two teams swapped two-set wins-Florida's Jessica Lehnhoff won easily at No. 2 and Duke's Granson followed suit at No. 6-the remaining four matches all went to a third set.
As the match's momentum hung in the balance-every two-game run seemed to be countered by a three-game run-Hazlett forced her way back into a match from a 4-1 third set deficit against Sell, one of the nation's toughest players.
Hazlett rallied to pull back on serve at 5-4, and after picking up a break in the next game, the Florida junior who struggled most of the match with her game, didn't lose another, clinching the first three-set match of the day 7-5 in the third.
"She's money when it comes down to it," said Sell. "She wasn't on top of her game most of the way, but she always comes up with the big shot. She never beats herself."
Miller would tie the match back up seven minutes later with one of her best win of the year, a three-set victory over Whitney Laiho.
But with the momentum still in Florida's favor from the Hazlett win, No. 5 seed Traci Green finished off Siebel, who had her own rally fall from down 5-1 in the third set to 5-4 fall just short of turning the match.
The fourth seed Adams never gained control of the third set of her match with Camino, falling down a break at 3-2 and walking off the court four games later as the Blue Devils trailed by the 4-2 margin they would not overcome.
But Duke didn't have to wait long to get back on the winning track. A 6-3 win over Illinois Sunday put Duke back on the winning track, albeit in somewhat anticlimactic fashion.
"It was a good rebound win," Sell said. "You come back out and play. Now we go to the rest of the season."
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