After taking home its first win of the season Feb. 4 against Campbell, the wrestling team (1-9, 0-4 in the ACC) could not continue its momentum Thursday against Virginia Tech in Cameron Indoor Stadium, losing 21-18 in a meet that came down to the last bout.
The matchup pitted the ACC's last two winless squads.
A major decision victory by Duke's Dan Tulley over Mark Czarny and a forfeit victory for Konrad Dudziak tied the meet at 18 going into the heavyweight fight between Blue Devil Wake Van Sickle and Hokie Mike Faust.
Faust jumped out to an early lead against Van Sickle and never looked back, closing the meet with a 13-6 decision that gave Virginia Tech (1-15, 1-3) the win.
Throughout the meet, close matches and missed opportunities characterized another Duke loss in a season of disappointments.
"You couldn't write a B-rated flick as bad as this," head coach Clar Anderson said.
The Hokies jumped out to a 12-0 lead after winning the first three matches.
"We didn't expect to get pinned at 141," Anderson said, referring to Wes Kuser's match against Virginia Tech's David Hoffman.
Duke was also surprised by freshman Michael Degli Obizzi's loss at the 133-pound weight class. After a back and forth match resulted in a 9-9 tie at the end of regulation, Obizzi lost quickly in overtime.
"I don't know what happened," Anderson said. "He just gave out. I don't know if he's getting sick or something."
Despite the early deficit, the Blue Devils came back with a strong showing by Daniel Shvartsman at the 149-pound weight class, in which he earned a technical fall victory, 21-6, over Joe Thompson. A win by Cameron Harms over Dave Kiley at 157 pounds put Duke within four.
Tough losses at the 165- and 174-pound weight classes, in which Aaron Glover and Levi Craig had trouble initiating offense, put the Hokies temporarily back in command. But the Blue Devils came back once again.
Anderson said that the dual meet could have gone the other way had either Glover, Obizzi or Tulley-all of whom nearly pinned their opponents-finished his adversary off.
"It's just frustrating on all accounts," he said.
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