With the second-ranked Blue Devils up 3-2 in matches but on the verge of dropping No. 1 singles, all pressure fell upon the young shoulders of freshman Amanda Johnson.
Having dueled with Kate Pinchbeck for over two hours, Johnson found herself in a second set tiebreaker that would ultimately appear to decide the match-win and go home the hero; lose and see all momentum go to the 14th-ranked Tar Heels.
After having traded crushing groundstrokes for the whole tiebreaker, Pinchbeck finally sailed one several feet behind the baseline, giving Johnson a hard-fought 7-5, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4) victory. More importantly, the triumph ensured a Duke victory (14-1, 2-0 in the ACC) over its bitter rival North Carolina (10-4, 1-1) on the other side of Tobacco road.
"I am very happy with the victory," Duke coach Jamie Ashworth said. "It was a very tough environment at UNC today. The crowd was extremely hostile and it seemed as if all the calls were going against us. We did a great job keeping our composure and if we didn't stay disciplined we wouldn't have won today."
While Johnson snatched the deciding match, several other Blue Devils played strong matches to put the freshman in that position.
The No. 2 singles contest between Megan Miller and the vocal Julie Rotondi proved to be the most heated. While Rotondi lobbed baseline moonballs all afternoon in an attempt to neutralize Miller's power game, the Duke senior remained very patient in her 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Though it was a straight-set win, the match was far from being a cake walk. As Rotondi, a crowd favorite, yelled after every point and constantly complained about the officiating, Miller remained collected expecting that Rotondi's emotion would eventually get the better of her actual play.
The contentiousness between the two combatants was indicative of the feeling that the two squads share for each other. The top three Tar Heel singles players all complained of poor officiating, and they did not appear to have any qualms about pinning these grievances directly on their opponents. Part of this behavior can be attributed to a great familiarity with the other team.
"I've known a couple of them for an extremely long time now," Siripipat said. "Against them, you just have to go on the court and leave all you have out there."
The only other Blue Devil raking up a victory in singles play was Kathy Sell in a 6-2, 6-2 whomping of Lee Bairos. Her baseline dominance simply overpowered Bairos, who seemed to be scrambling to maintain a rally with the senior.
Hillary Adams retired in the first set of her No. 6 singles match after injuring her shoulder running after a ball. Freshman superhero Ansley Cargill fell 6-4, 7-6, to the 12th-ranked Marlene Mejia, whose huge left-handed forehand and sneaky backhand slice gave Cargill fits.
Note: With the win, Duke pulled even in Carlyle Cup standings with North Carolina, 17-17.
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