Standing motionless against the wall outside the Duke tennis locker room, a tan silhouette against a stark white background, Kathy Sell's eyes said all that her mind hadn't quite grasped and probably didn't want to. More emotionally empty than emotionally drained, she stared at the small gathering of media, her lips moving silently over words that simply wouldn't come.
But it didn't matter what word she might have come up with, because it hadn't been about words at all, it was about a number-116-and as the sun slipped an hour into the horizon behind Duke Tennis Stadium, 116 had once again become zero.
"I'm just speechless, I don't know what to say," said Sell as she thought about the end of the most improbable streak Duke had known. "I never dreamed that it would be over... I was psyched to be a part of it for two years and I'm devastated to be on the team that sees it end.... It hasn't all set in yet."
Led by a dominating performance by its top three seeds, No. 3 Wake Forest (14-1, 4-0 in the ACC) did what seemed all but impossible a year ago, ending the No. 5 Blue Devils' (14-5, 3-1) 11-year, 116-match ACC win streak.
Four times the streak had survived a 5-4 scare, including two against Wake Forest in 1995, but a pair of three-set losses in the bottom of the singles lineup and a decisive 8-3 victory at No. 1 doubles guaranteed that the longest team winning streak in conference history was, like the remnants
"At staff meeting today, I let everyone know today was going to be the day," said first-year Wake Forest coach Brian Fleishman. "116 wins is something to be proud of, but all good things must come to an end."
And an inspired doubles performance almost helped the Blue Devils fashion an escape that would have been as many parts Houdini as trademark Duke grit.
Down 4-2 going into doubles and with the momentum heavily in favor of Wake Forest, which had won the final two singles matches to break a 2-2 tie, Duke came out tougher in doubles than it had all season.
Never this season had the Blue Devils rallied from such a deficit, falling 6-3 to Florida and William & Mary both times they faced 4-2 deficits, but as Megan Miller and Hillary Adams at No. 2 doubles and Kathy Sell and Katie Granson at No. 3 doubles charged out to 3-0 advantages, it was difficult to tell what seemed more unlikely-the impossible comeback or the impossible loss.
"We knew we could sweep doubles," Duke coach Jamie Ashworth said. "But we knew we couldn't give Wake Forest a chance to close us out; they're too good a team to do that."
But as the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams pushed their advantage high-five by high-five, the Blue Devils' top doubles team of Erica Biro and Brooke Siebel, the lone senior on the team, were struggling with a 5-0 deficit.
Still, on a day of the impossible, even a visibly out-of-sync performance by Duke's top duo didn't look like it would keep the Blue Devils from a stunning comeback.
Down 5-0, Siebel and Biro rallied to win three straight games, holding serve twice around a break of Wake Forest's Janet Bergman.
The Blue Devils then picked up a break point on Demon Deacon freshman Bea Bielik, but an unforced error and a pair of Wake Forest drop volleys ended the game and all but ended one of the most impressive team achievements in NCAA history.
"The thing that hurts Erica and I is that we can get so frustrated with our own games that we don't communicate well," said Siebel, who struggled in the opening four games, "We could've scraped by a game or two in the beginning if we were more together... but when we started playing well, I thought we could do it, even at the 6-3 changeover."
But Wake Forest took the final two games handily and sealed the fifth and decisive point for the Deacons.
It was the second time this year that Wake Forest had ended a 100-plus match win streak. On March 5, the Demon Deacons upended Florida, stopping the Gators' 114-match regular season out-of-conference winning streak.
"We're showing where we belong," said Wake third seed Janet Bergman, who rallied from down a set to knock off Granson 6-1 in the third set. "We've been in Duke's shadow in the ACC and now we're showing that we're one of the best teams in the nation."
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