The No. 9 men's tennis team (7-4) is ready to defend it's home turf against the No. 17 Texas Longhorns (7-4) in Ambler Stadium today at 1:30 p.m. This will mark the first time since last year's 4-3 Duke victory that these teams have collided. The Blue Devils are hoping that a third consecutive victory against the Longhorns will narrow the all-time series margin that Texas currently leads 7-5.
Contrary to their current top-10 ranking, Duke encountered unforeseen difficulty earlier this season. After suffering back-to-back road losses to Tennessee and Florida, things were not going well for Duke tennis. Those days are now over, as the Blue Devils are back on track after winning two straight against Virginia Commonwealth and Georgia Tech by margins of 4-3 and 7-0, respectively. The Longhorns travel to Durham having also won two of their last three matches with victories over SMU and Tulsa.
Duke sophomore Ludovic Walter thinks that the recent winning streak might have something to do with the team's practice habits.
"We had a tough weekend two weeks ago against Tennessee and Florida," Walter said. "We played them outside so we had to adjust to the conditions. Since the weather has been nice, we have been able to practice more outside and we are getting better. After the Tennessee loss, especially, everyone was disappointed so we came to practice angry to improve."
Surely, last week was an indicator of the team's ability to adjust quickly and improve its performance. But senior All-American captain Phillip King is not yet satisfied.
"We are starting to pull back to where we should be after a rough weekend," King said. "I don't think we are at where we should be yet, but it's kind of hard to get there. We should definitely be a top four or five team."
Duke plans on satisfying its appetite for a top ranking with a win, as the players expressed optimistic opinions on the outcome of the match.
"I think we definitely shouldn't be losing anymore--we had some tough matches but there is no team we can't beat," King said. "We should beat Texas, but it will not be an easy match. This is a good marking point to see where we are at in the season. A win over Texas will give us confidence but there is a lot of pressure for us to win since they are the underdog."
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