After five years in the business, Jaime Ashworth knows that no matches are really routine. His team just makes them look that way.
Despite playing in temperatures that ran up to 105 degrees on the court, the No. 6 women's tennis team barely broke a sweat as it ran through a pair of opponents by 5-0 scores this weekend to move into the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament in Malibu, Calif.
And for the 12-time defending ACC champions that's just par for the Final Four course.
"We didn't play well, but we competed well," Ashworth said. "We competed as well as we have all season-we played hard-but we just weren't striking the ball well or making good decisions."
But for a talented Arkansas team, that Duke didn't play its best match of the year didn't much matter. It was more than enough.
"In terms of the score, that was our worst loss of the year," said Arkansas coach Kevin Platt, whose Razorback club plays in the SEC, the nation's top conference. "We played well, but there just wasn't much we could do."
Pat Riley's hair gel may be the only thing more synonymous with May playoffs than that statement.
"This is a team with only one mission," Mississippi coach Jerry Montgomery said a year ago, after his Rebels were run out of the tournament 5-0 by the Blue Devils. "That's seek and destroy."
And in a season where all there was of consistency was inconsistency, these Blue Devils might just be back in the same form that has taken them to the last four Final Fours.
"We're definitely getting to that kind of focus that last year's team had," Ashworth said. "We weren't there earlier, but I think we've grown into a team that can contend [for the national championship]."
No. 1 seed Megan Miller claimed the match's first point at No. 1 singles, dominating Chin Bee Khoo, the No. 17 player in the nation, 6-1, 6-1.
For Miller, the 100th singles win of her career marked another high point in the best two-month run of her collegiate career, which has seen her beat top-10 players Whitney Laiho of Florida and Adria Engel of Wake Forest. Since the team's Feb. 19 loss to Pepperdine, Duke's senior has gone 19-2.
"Megan has been playing very well lately," Ashworth said. "Going into the season our number one spot was a question mark, and she has just stepped up and done it."
And the rest of the team followed suit.
Wins by Hillary Adams and Prim Siripipat at No. 5 and 6 singles, respectively, pushed the Duke advantage to 3-0, grabbing the momentum of the match less than an hour in.
No. 4 seed Erica Biro then recovered from a first-set slump to claim a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Adriana Lopez, who was visibly fatigued by the extreme heat.
As a team, the Razorbacks struggled with the 100-plus degree weekend temperatures. While the Blue Devils were able to get on and off the court in an hour in their opening round match, Arkansas spent over four hours in a grueling 5-4 win over North Carolina.
"That's the advantage they get for the regular season," Platt said. "It definitely didn't help us."
And it showed in the two deciding three-set matches.
After Biro claimed the No. 4 singles match and a 4-0 Duke match lead, No. 5 seed Katie Granson rallied in her match to seal the Blue Devils' spot in the round of 16 with an emphatic 6-1 victory in the deciding set.
The Blue Devils next play Arizona State today at 11 a.m., but just one round beyond the Wildcats awaits the Florida Gators, a team that Duke has defeated just once in 24 tries.
But in a season where the unexpected became the norm, even an upset of Florida seems, well, routine.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.