Duke's magic ran out Saturday as the men's tennis team lost in the NCAA tournament's round of 16, 4-1, to No. 7 Kentucky at College Station, Texas.
No. 17 Duke (17-12), which upset No. 10 California 4-3 in the tournament's previous round, ran into a brick wall against the Wildcats (23-9). The Blue Devils dropped the doubles point and then three of four singles matches en route to the loss.
The other two singles flights did not finish because the match's outcome had been decided.
"I think this was one of our better matches of the year," Kentucky coach Dennis Emery said. "...You have to give Duke a lot of credit because they fought back really well."
The match began with the Wildcats taking the doubles point for a 1-0 lead. While Duke lost at No. 2 doubles, the third flight team won 8-6.
Then, Kentucky's 49th-ranked pair of Evan Austin and Karim Benmansour upset the No. 28 duo of Phillip King and Michael Yani.
Coach Jay Lapidus said he thought that the loss of the doubles point was "very critical and may have been [Duke's] undoing."
He added that although his team has come back from a deficit many times, it was hard at this stage in the tournament because they were "under a lot of pressure."
The Blue Devils quickly leveled the match at one as the 43rd-ranked Yani crushed Benmansour 6-2, 6-3 to open singles play. King then lost 6-4, 6-4 and Joel Spicher and Yorke Allen both dropped their matches to give Kentucky a 4-1 win.
"I really should have won, but people win and people lose," King said. "I'm not too upset, but I'm not happy either."
The loss ended Duke's season. King and Yani will now compete in NCAA singles and doubles play.
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