The keyword for the men's tennis team last week was upset. The No. 3 Blue Devils (8-3) dropped two games in four days against top-10 teams in their tour of Texas schools last week.
Duke came into the week 7-1, having only lost to Stanford at the National Team Indoor Championships last February. Duke added its second loss of the season when it played No. 5 Texas A&M and fell 4-2. After a blowout win over Baylor 7-0, Duke lost to Texas Christian 4-3. The game versus Texas was canceled because of rain.
"We knew going into the trip that it was going to be a tough schedule, and we kind of prefer it that way," Duke coach Jay Lapidus said. "I was a little disappointed; I wanted to win at least one of those matches. We knew that those were top-five teams and if we had come back to Duke having won all of them, we probably would have been ranked No. 1."
In the week's matchups, several of Duke's key players did not win. Seniors Ramsey Smith and Marko Cerenko both took hard losses to A&M players Ryan Newport (7-5, 6-3) and Keith Fromm (6-4, 6-1), respectively. Duke swept all of the singles matches against Baylor, but Smith, Cerenko and Andres Pedroso all suffered losses against TCU.
"There were a few upsets; we had a couple situations where... [some of the players] might not have been matched up correctly," Lapidus said. "If you put the same lineup in there day after day, other teams can adjust to it, so maybe I need to change the lineup some."
In doubles play, the Aggies swept all three matches and gained the point as the 12th-ranked duo of Smith and Michael Yani lost to 19th-ranked Caradima and Madden 8-3. Duke's tandem of Cerenko and Phillip King fell to 40th-ranked Davis and Newport 8-6, and Pedroso and Ted Rueger lost to Hubbell and Skube 8-3.
Against Baylor, the team fared better in doubles play, except for Smith and Yani, who fell to Neurohr and Williams 8-6.
TCU almost swept Duke in doubles, but Pedroso and Rueger won over Iannariello and Eddins 8-4.
King, Duke's No. 1 singles player, was the only Blue Devil to win all three singles matches last week.
Tuesday against the Aggies, King defeated 22nd-ranked Shuon Madden 6-4, 6-1. Playing No. 2 versus Mark Williams of Baylor, King won easily in two sets 6-4, 6-1. It took three sets against TCU's Trace Fielding, but King prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
Joel Spicher had a similar week playing at No. 5 singles. Spicher wiped out Baylor's Matias Marin 6-2, 6-3 and did the same to Daniel Wajnberg of TCU. His match at A&M versus Cody Hubbell was not finished.
"Joel has been doing great all year; he hasn't lost a match for us yet," Lapidus said. "I know the guy he played against at TCU was very tough and he beat him pretty badly."
Another sophomore, Yorke Allen, received rare playing time last week. At No. 6 singles, Allen defeated both his opponents: Baylor's Cory Ross and TCU's Jimmy Haney.
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