When the ACC women’s tennis tournament starts today, 15th-ranked Duke will be in a strangely unfamiliar position—seeded seventh. The Blue Devils received their worst tournament seeding in 23 years after a season riddled by injuries.
In each of the past 17 years, Duke has advanced to the tournament finals, winning 15 times. Along with the late-season injuries, the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech seems to have upset the league balance as the Blue Devils lost more than three conference matches for the first time in ACC history. A 5-5 record in a league with five of the nation’s top 15 teams seeded Duke ahead of only Florida State, Virginia, N.C. State and Virginia Tech.
The Blue Devils open the tournament in Cary against the 10th-seeded Wolfpack, a team Duke has never lost to in either regular season or tournament play. The winner will face the second-seeded Hurricanes, who split two matches with Duke this spring.
“This is the strongest our conference has ever been,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We used to be able to go through the year and know that we were more talented, but now we can’t.”
Injuries and inconsistency in doubles held the Blue Devils back in the grinding ACC season. Junior Julia Smith suffered a season-ending injury early in the fall and now additional injuries to senior Katie Blaszak and sophomore Jennifer Zika leave the Blue Devils without two of their top three players for the tournament. Blaszak is currently the team’s highest rated singles player at 44, followed by Junior Jackie Carleton at 111.
“We are more beat up now than all year,” Ashworth said. “At this time of year we wanted people back, but at the same time, other players are better now than they have been all year.”
Blue Devils stepping up include Carleton, a transfer from UCLA, freshman Clelia Deltour and sophomore Parker Goyer, who played infrequently before the recent injuries. Deltour and senior Saras Arasu won the only two singles matches in a season-ending loss to No. 11 Clemson last weekend.
Against Georgia Tech, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Blue Devils were victorious on four singles courts as Goyer secured the victory with a three-set win April 16.
“We were without Katie this past weekend, and we did well,” Arasu said. “I think everyone is prepared.”
With 4-3 losses to Miami, Maryland and North Carolina, Duke has often played the ACC’s top teams close before coming up short. Part of the problem has been the doubles point, a weakness exacerbated by the injuries.
“We haven’t been able to formulate something solid in doubles play because of injury,” Arasu said.
During their 23 matches this season, the Blue Devils have only been able to win the doubles point nine times. Fortunately for Duke, three of those wins came against N.C. State and Miami.
“I think an 18th-consecutive finals appearance is definitely possible,” Ashworth said. “We went into the Georgia Tech match coming off a loss to UNC but knowing that we could compete with top-10 teams despite the injury situation.”
After a week with tough conditioning and motivating phone calls from former Duke players, the Blue Devils said they are primed for the tournament.
“We kind of let the pride of Duke tennis get away from us a couple weeks ago,” Ashworth said. “We’ve got motivation from past groups, and since then we’ve been a totally different team.”
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