Duke is 6-0 in the ACC. Texas is 7-0 in the Big 12. However, the two women's tennis teams' dominant conference play will be tossed aside as the inter-conference rivals face off tomorrow at Ambler Stadium.
With a match against the Longhorns (15-3) kicking off its four-match homestand, Duke (15-1) hopes to ride its 14-match win streak and 25-match home winning streak right past the Longhorns, who are coming off a 5-2 win at Wake Forest.
Duke also cruised past the Demon Deacons with a 5-2 victory March 31, winning at the No. 1 singles spot and spots 3 through 6, after Wake Forest took the doubles point.
The doubles point proved to be the deciding factor when Duke met Texas last year in Austin. The Blue Devils managed tight 9-7 and 8-6 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles before blasting by the Longhorns at No. 3, 8-0. Duke scraped by with a 4-3 win, fueled by its doubles sweep.
However, last season when the two teams met in Austin, the rankings were a little different. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 4., as they are now, but the Longhorns were No. 35, a striking difference from the team's current No. 14 spot.
"Texas has a couple new girls and their ranking has improved," head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "I look at this match like a quarterfinal NCAA match. We are both right in that mix between three and ten, and it's going to be good to see where we are. We're playing better than we have all year [and] it would be a great confidence booster for us to play well [against Texas]."
After stumbling against Tulane April 2 with 8-4 and 8-3 losses at the second and third doubles flights respectively, the Longhorns won the doubles point against Wake Forest yesterday with wins at No. 1 and No. 2.
For Duke, freshman Tory Zawacki and sophomore Julia Smith will play in the featured doubles match. The duo have only recently been paired together, and their play has consistently improved over the last few matches, according to Ashworth.
"Julia is playing the best doubles that she has in two years at Duke," Ashworth said. "It's a big week for us, so hopefully they can establish themselves."
With only one senior and no juniors on its team, Texas has relied on its young talent this season.
"Texas' youth has helped them a lot," Ashworth said. "We both have three freshmen in the top six, so every match is a new experience for the teams. This is only the second time the [Texas] freshmen have played top-five teams. For us, it is a matter of how we are going to react with four straight matches...hopefully we're mature enough to handle it."
In singles action, freshman Petra Dizdar has led her squad. Ranked No. 18, Dizdar is a standout player from Croatia who was ranked as high as 72 in the ITF World Junior Tennis Rankings.
Senior Amanda Johnson, No. 9 in the nation, will be the fifth top-ten player to face Dizdar this season. Dizdar has lost to all four she has faced so far, including No. 1 Alexis Gordon of the University of Florida. Johnson, who holds an 18-10 singles record this year, beat Gordon earlier this year at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
Although not a league opponent, Texas has been a strong perennial opponent for the Blue Devils. In 1993, the Longhorns knocked Duke out of the NCAA tournament en route to the national championship. More recently, in 2002, the No. 4 Blue Devils defeated No. 7 Texas, 5-2. Although Duke has defeated the Longhorns three times during the previous two seasons, facing Texas will be a challenge for the Blue Devils.
"Texas is probably better than their number and have played a tougher schedule than us," Ashworth said. "They are not going to fear anything. We have always had really good matches with them."
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