Instead of attending his graduation, Joel Spicher decided to sleep in and get some extra rest before the men's tennis team's big match against California.
Although it may have been an odd move for many graduates, the sleep paid huge dividends, as Spicher helped the No. 17 Blue Devils upset the No. 10 Golden Bears 4-3 at Ambler Stadium last Sunday afternoon in the second round of NCAA tournament.
Spicher's match, which he won 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 over California's Robert Kowalczyk, broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Blue Devils (17-11) the victory and a trip to College Station, Texas, for the sweet 16.
"I was [telling myself] to fight on every point," the Geneva, Switzerland, native said. "I'm a senior, it's my last year so I couldn't leave with a loss; it would have been too painful to part like that."
After dropping the first set, Spicher used hard-hitting groundstrokes to claw his way back into the match. He consistently returned his opponents' shots, forcing Kowalczyk into long rallies and increasing his chance of errors. After squeaking out a victory in a second set tiebreak, Spicher took the momentum into the third set.
In the middle of the set, however, Kowalczyk broke for a 3-1 Golden Bear (19-7) lead. However, Spicher quickly responded, breaking back to 4-3. Two games later, Kowalczyk--down a
Serving for the set, Spicher dropped the first point, only to win the next four, the set, the match and the spot in the next round. The win was especially sweet for the veteran senior who, after rolling his ankle, lost the deciding match for Duke in the quarterfinals of last season's NCAA tournament.
"It was a great win for Joel," said assistant coach Dave Hagymas, who coached Spicher during the match. "He had a tough ACC's and it was also his graduation day. He had a lot going on around him [Sunday]."
After losing two of three doubles matches, Duke found itself in a 0-1 hole going into singles play. However, the match was easily leveled by Michael Yani, who--playing what both he and coach Jay Lapidus called the best match of his life--made short work of California's Balazs Veress. The 43rd-ranked player in the country topped the No. 81, 6-0, 6-2.
Junior Yorke Allen and his powerful forehand won fifth singles 6-4, 6-3 to give Duke a 2-1 edge. California responded at the sixth singles flight, however, where Mik Ledvonova beat Peter Shults 6-3, 6-3 and the Golden Bears knotted the match at two.
The final three singles matches all went to three sets. After dropping the first set, freshman Jason Zimmerman rallied back to beat California's Conor Niland 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
"I was mentally tough," he said. "I didn't make any unforced errors, I made my opponent play every ball and ran down everything I could, and things starting going my way."
With the Blue Devils up 3-2, Duke looked to its top player, 11th-ranked Phillip King to close out the match. Despite winning the first set, King dropped the next two and the match 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to No. 13 John Paul Fruttero.
Fruttero, who King said he has "not lost to since he was 10," used a serve and volley combination to beat the Long Beach Calif. native.
"I wasn't playing sharp today, only about 30 or 40 percent," King said. "I was hoping that [Spicher] would win first because I was playing so bad that I didn't want to finish."
The Blue Devils will face Kentucky in the sweet 16, and should they get past the Wildcats they could face second-seeded Tennessee in the quarterfinals. Duke lost to the Volunteers 4-1 earlier in the season.
"I think we're starting to play really well now," Lapidus said. "I respect [Kentucky], but I'm certainly not afraid of them. I think it will be a good match. I think we should win.... I have a funny feeling about this year; I think we may do a little better than people expect us to."
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