In the past 12 years, Duke has ruled the ACC in tennis, both men's and women's. In fact, the parallels between the two programs are so similar it's eerie. Consider, the men have not lost a regular season match since 1997 and have won eight ACC tournaments since 1990. And by men's head coach Jay Lapidus' recollection, Duke hasn't lost more than eight matches to anyone in the conference in that same span.
Similarly, the women have gone a remarkable 150-2 since 1989 against ACC competitors and had won 14 consecutive conference tournament titles heading into last year's postseason. Neither team has won an NCAA team title yet, despite holding lofty national rankings and regularly churning out individual All-Americans. In 2002, Duke expected the monopoly to continue steamrolling - but the Blue Devil women were upset by North Carolina 4-3, and the men fell to Georgia Tech 4-0.
As such, both teams have a nascent sense of focus and purpose heading into this year's ACC tournament.
"The biggest thing is going into the tournament and regaining what we lost last year," women's head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "In past years we've gone in trying to protect something. Now we're going after something."
Lapidus concurred with Ashworth.
"Last year we went into it with a casual attitude," he said. "This year we know we've had a lot of close matches in the conference. Everyone is gunning for us. I think we'll have a more serious attitude knowing we were beaten last year, and we're not taking anything for granted."
Neither team is expected to struggle in the first round - "both squads are top seeds - but beyond that, Duke will have to stand up and play if it wants to win the ACCs.
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