Duke women's tennis made its presence known at the Maryland Invitational this weekend, with Blue Devil's competing in the A flight finals in both singles and doubles.
Top-seeded junior Daniela Bercek, ranked fifth in the country, ousted third-seed Ekaterina Burduli of Washington State, 6-0, 6-3, Sunday.
"She played a really smart match and did a good job mixing it up and being aggressive when she needed to be," assistant coach Stephanie Nickitas said.
Bercek, in her first tournament since transferring to Duke from UCLA, played 99th-ranked teammate Clelia Deltour in the semifinals. Although Bercek emerged victorious, 6-2, 6-0, both girls had fun grinding out their close games, Nickitas said.
In doubles play, Duke freshman Jessi Robinson teamed up with Bercek for the first time; the team was seeded first in Flight A. The Duke duo, ranked 11th in Division I, shut down Yale's Janet Kim and Aimee Kim, 8-2, in the semifinals, and then went on to face Marianne Baker and Ramona But of Maryland in the finals.
The final match described by Nickitas as "super-competitive," went into a tiebreaker, which the Blue Devils eventually lost 7-3. Bercek and Robinson were persistent throughout the contest, however, saving five match points, before losing 9-8.
Despite losing to Yale's Olivia Nix and Rashmee Patil, 8-5, in the first round of the Flight A doubles bracket Friday, the Blue Devils tandem of senior Lauren Archer and junior Parker Goyer rebounded to beat Washington State's pair of Burduli and Maria Ring, 8-2, Saturday. The pair fell to Lauren Connelly and Kiki Stastny of Notre Dame, 8-2, in the consolation finals.
Up next for some of the Blue Devils is the Cal Invitational in Berkeley, Calif., next weekend, while others will compete in the prequalifying round of the All-American Tournament October 1-2.
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