ATHENS, Ga. -- Overshadowed by the unfortunate ankle sprain to Joel Spicher Monday were the three points that Duke did pick up--all three-set victories by the three seniors who have been the team's heart and soul for four years.
In a gutsy performance, Ramsey Smith, Marko Cerenko and Andres Pedroso picked up the slack when their younger teammates stumbled, grinding out a trio of battles that gave Duke two match points to earn its first trip to the NCAA semifinals. Duke coach Jay Lapidus expressed his pride in his seniors after the disappointing defeat, crediting them with coming through when the Blue Devils were reeling early in their match to Georgia.
One by one they silenced the hostile crowd of 3,600 people at Georgia's Henry Feild Tennis Stadium, starting with an improbable come-from-behind win by Smith over eighth-ranked Bo Hodge, the likely recipient of national freshman of the year honors. After Hodge's booming serves carried him to a 6-3 first-set triumph, Smith rallied behind an explosive array of one-handed backhands and a clear edge in mental toughness that overwhelmed his freshman opponent 6-0 in the final set.
On the adjacent court, Cerenko pounced early on high-flying Lesley Joseph, whose tremendous vertical leaps tantalized the crowd with some of the tournament's most sensational overhead smashes. Although Joseph's prowess at net helped him take the second set, Cerenko dominated his 19-year-old opponent in the final set by breaking serve in three out of five opportunities.
Having catapulted the Blue Devils back into the match, Smith and Cerenko watched on the fourth court as their last remaining classmate dueled through an equally tense contest. As Pedroso, whose remarkable consistency and dangerous backhand gave Georgia's Chad Carlson fits, fought to solidify his early third-set break, he did so by drawing inspiration from the teammates with whom he has weathered so many storms.
"Every point that [Andres] won, he was looking over right at us," Smith said. "I felt almost like I was out there with him. It was almost like I was playing the match with him."
By the time Pedroso finished off Carlson, Spicher had already suffered his ankle sprain and given back the serve game that would have taken Duke to the semis. The writing seemed to be on the wall for Duke's seniors: Their ride was over.
It was a difficult message for the three players, who along with senior Ted Rueger represented Duke's most talented recruiting haul ever back in the fall of 1997, to accept after nearly pulling off a historic comeback. They entered Duke as an eclectic group: Smith, the former model and son of tennis legend Stan Smith; Cerenko, who immigrated to the United States after his family fled his native home of Croatia; and Pedroso, a Cuban-American who distinguished himself almost as much with his social activism as he did on the tennis court.
Together, the trio represented three of the program's six winningest players ever, tallying a total of 334 singles victories and far surpassing any class to precede them.
After losing to Georgia, Pedroso talked about how he and Smith, roommates for all four of their years at Duke, had stayed up nights since their freshman year dreaming of the championships they would win. Although neither they nor Cerenko will ever bring Duke a national championship banner to hang in Sheffield Tennis Center, their legacy in that building's halls will not soon fade.
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