The No. 14 Duke men's tennis team defeated both of its opponents this weekend. Sunday, the Blue Devils (7-8, 3-0 in the ACC) completely swept the Virginia Cavaliers 7-0, and Friday, Duke downed Maryland 5-2. The win against the two conference teams mark the 44th consecutive ACC win for the Blue Devils.
"It was a good warmup for our match against Wake Forest on Wednesday," sophomore Darin Goldstein said. "They are the second-best team in the ACC behind us, so this was kind of an important match."
The only loss the Blue Devils took against Virginia was the No. 1 doubles duo of Michael Yani and Philip King, who fell to Michael Duquette and Stephen Nolen 8-1. Other than that, Duke swept all singles matches as King at No. 1 and Yani at No. 2 both handily defeated their opponents 6-4, 6-3. Duke freshman Jason Zimmerman faced Nolen at No. 3, the only match that went into a tough third set. He defeated Nolen, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Friday, none of the usual roster positions were held as Duke changed the lineup yet again as Yani played at No. 1 singles. He fell, however, to Haris Causevic in a tough match that extended into three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Zimmerman played at No. 2 instead of his usual position at No. 3 and easily triumphed over Chris Chiu, 6-4, 6-2. Joel Spicher moved up as well, playing Troy Demerst at No. 3 and winning, 6-3, 6-3.
Yorke Allen and Peter Shults played at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively. Allen took a win over Jonathan Murchison, 6-1, 6-1 and Shults defeated Greg Chambers, 6-0, 6-0. Goldstein got some playing time as he and David Reichsfeld played in a retired match.
"They retired the match because I hurt my elbow," Goldstein said. "It was good to get back, I hadn't been in a match in a while except against UC-Irvine a week ago, so it was good to get a match. I'll probably play again against N.C. State next week, so we'll see."
Duke took the doubles point at Nos. 1 and 2, but not with its usual lineup. Not only did the doubles lineup change against Maryland, but the pairings did as well. Yani, instead of usually playing at No. 1 with King, was paired with Goldstein at No. 3. The duo fell to Chiu/Chambers 8-6. Spicher and Allen were at No. 1 and defeated Murchison/Causevic, 8-4. Zimmerman and Shults played at No. 2 and won over Demers/Reichsfeld, 8-3.
Goldstein said the Blue Devils were testing different options in preparation for their tough upcoming ACC matches.
"We were just experimenting and it wasn't a very difficult match," Goldstein said. So we were just trying out a few things."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.