After two 4-3 losses to Florida last season, one of which knocked Duke out of last year's NCAA tournament, the third-ranked men's tennis team did not want to show an ounce of mercy.
Unfortunately for the 10th-ranked Gators, they did not have to. Instead, in a match so lopsided they did not drop a single set, the Blue Devils demolished last year's NCAA semifinalist 7-0 yesterday in the Sheffield Tennis Center. It also marked the 10th straight match Duke has won at home.
"It was great to win 7-0, especially after we lost twice last year," senior Marko Cerenko said. "I thought it was one of the best matches we played all year."
The match began with the Blue Devils (7-1) taking the doubles point by sweeping all three matches over Florida (5-5). With the Gators experiencing some recent problems in doubles and using their 11th and 12th different pairings of the season, Duke tried to take them out early
Playing at No. 1 doubles for the Blue Devils was the nation's 16th-ranked pair of Ramsey Smith and Michael Yani. They demolished the Gators' Nathan Overholser and Jeremy Wurtzman 8-3, while Cerenko, who has been battling a minor injury, and Phillip King looked equally impressive in their 8-2 victory over Troy Hahn and Olivier Levant.
"Phillip and I kept switching it up between the deuce and the ad courts," Cerenko said. "I thought
After that it was up to Andres Pedroso and Ted Rueger, the 41st-ranked team in the nation, to pull off the hardest match of the day for Duke. They took out Florida's Matt Behrmann and Ross Greenstein, 9-8 (5), in a tiebreaker. After being down a break at 5-3, the pair was able to rally to put the Gators away and take all three doubles matches, shifting the tide of the match to the Blue Devils.
"Whether you win two of three or three of three in doubles is not important because you still get the point," coach Jay Lapidus said. "But I thought it was good for Andres and Ted, who had lost some close matches lately, to win. It also probably helped Andres' confidence in singles."
Since Overholser, the normal No. 1 singles player for the Gators, sat out with a minor back injury, these spots on both teams' ladders were left for freshmen. However, it was King who prevailed, knocking off Wurtzman 6-3, 6-4 and ending a nine-match winning streak for the Gator.
"I thought the team did well," King said. "I was not upset at all with my performance either."
At the second singles spot, No. 5 Smith beat No. 46 Levant 6-3, 6-4. Since Overholser was not playing, Lapidus decided to sit out Cerenko and let him rest his foot, bumping up Pedroso to the third spot. Pedroso proceeded to trounce Hahn 6-1, 6-4, clinching the match for the Blue Devils.
"It's a day-to-day injury," Cerenko said. "It turned out that their No. 1 singles player was out so we balanced each other out. If they had needed me, I would have played because I felt about 80 percent, but I was fine to sit out and let other people who may not get to play as much gain experience."
Joel Spicher finished off Behrmann 6-4, 7-5, and Alex Bose was beating Greenstein 6-3, 4-0 before the Gator was forced to retire. Lastly, Yorke Allen also defeated West Nott 6-3, 6-4, to give Duke the sweep.
"It was one of our stronger performances of the year," Lapidus said. "It's pretty impressive to beat the No. 10 team in the country that badly. Usually you have four or five guys playing good matches, but to see all our guys come together on the same day and play well was great."
The Blue Devils, whose only loss of the year came against top-ranked Stanford, have a week off before going up against the Texas Longhorns. Florida, on the other hand, will be riding a two-match losing streak into Wednesday's conference matchup with Vanderbilt.
"I wasn't here last year, but I think it felt real good for the rest of the guys and Jay to [beat Florida]," King said. "It always feels good to win."
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