The women's tennis team held on tightly to its broom this weekend, sweeping two matches to extend its winning streak to eight.
The 11th-ranked Blue Devils (14-4) took two of three doubles matches Saturday to squeak out a 5-4 win over No. 18 Baylor (15-2), then turned around and whipped Indiana (10-7) yesterday 8-1. Saturday's match was played at the Duke Tennis Stadium, but yesterday's contest was moved to the Duke Sheffield Tennis Center due to the weather.
"We got back from our road trip late Thursday and then had to play Saturday afternoon, so it wasn't an ideal situation," coach Jamie Ashworth said. "We really need to play more aggressive than we did Saturday, but I thought we played well [yesterday]."
After splitting the six singles matches against the Bears, the focus turned to doubles. The No. 1 team of Brooke Siebel and Erica Biro took early control of their match, but the No. 2 team of Megan Miller and Hillary Adams fell behind quickly.
Thus, the pressure rested on the shoulders of the No. 3 duo of Kathy Sell and Katie Granson. The match went back and forth, as neither team could gain a comfortable lead. Duke held serve late to take an 8-7 lead in the pro-set.
Sell and Granson kept the pressure on in the ensuing game and earned a break point. After a solid return by Granson forced a sub-par answer by Baylor, Sell slammed home the match-winning point.
"Having some pressure on the doubles definitely will help us in the long run," Ashworth said. "It's great for us to know that we can win at least two out of three doubles matches against a team that is in the top 20 in the country.... Our doubles are really getting better."
While the No. 2 doubles team fell 8-4, the only reason for concern with the No. 1 team occurred when Biro dove for a ball and banged her knee with her team up 5-2. Fortunately for the Blue Devils, the sophomore recovered quickly and went on for an 8-4 victory.
The drama of the doubles was set by the struggles of its top three players in singles. Miller, Sell and Granson each lost tight matches, with Miller and Sell unable to convert on match points in their respective third sets.
Duke's four through six players, however, had no trouble at all with the top-heavy Bears. Biro, Adams and Prim Siripipat all won in straight sets, as Adams and Siripipat lost a combined five games in their two matches.
Things got a little easier for the Blue Devils yesterday when No. 44 Indiana came to town. This time around, the two teams played the doubles portion first, and Duke took all three of the contests.
"We're a little more talented than Indiana, so we mainly wanted to work on some things against them," Ashworth said. "We needed to improve and work on things to make us better for the Wake Forest match and better in the ACC."
Duke's singles players carried the momentum from the doubles into their contests, winning three of the four matches. Ioana Plesu, playing No. 4, split her first two sets (6-1, 1-6) before dominating the third set 6-0 for the win.
Sell stepped into the No. 1 spot for the day and found herself in quite a battle. The junior took the opening set 6-4 and was able to hold off a rally in the second for the 7-5 victory.
"Kathy had some match points Saturday in singles and couldn't close out, so that's something she has to get through," Ashworth said. "Today was big for her to close out that second set. She started to get defensive near the end, but when you get someone in a position to put them away, you have to stay aggressive."
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