Even without its top singles player in action, No. 7 Duke looked like it would cruise over No. 41 N.C. State Thursday.
Junior Daniela Bercek, the second-ranked player in the nation, sat out the singles competition with tendinitis in her shoulder. Still, the Blue Devils (7-2, 2-0 in the ACC) led 3-1, and the Wolfpack (9-2, 0-2) needed to sweep the top three singles positions to pull off the upset.
But senior Jackie Carleton, the 34th-ranked player nationally, dropped her second set in the top singles spot, 6-4. As she began her decisive third set against Barbara Orlay, N.C. State led both the No. 2 and the No. 3 matchups, and head coach Jamie Ashworth admitted he was a little worried.
"In the past we've beaten N.C. State pretty easily, but they are so much more talented this year than they have been in the past," Ashworth said. "They are coming off a top-25 win over Florida International, and I tried to explain that to the girls last night."
Freshman Melissa Mang stepped up, however, and broke Shona Lee twice to turn a 3-2 deficit into a clinching 6-3 third-set victory at the No. 2 spot. The win gave Duke a 5-2 team victory.
Mang, who had played all of her dual matches at the fourth or fifth position coming into Thursday, was forced to compete in the second position usually filled by Carleton.
"Melissa has been playing really well, but the one thing that has kind of hurt her is that she hasn't been in a tough match," Ashworth said. "She needed a tough match, but I'd rather have it come when we are up 5-1 or 6-0 than where it's a close situation. But she has been as solid as we've had all year at any position."
Freshman Tara Iyer fell 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, at the No. 3 spot, but Carleton stormed back in the third set to take the top singles matchup 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, to round out the 5-2 victory. The win was the Blue Devils' 46th in a row over the Wolfpack.
Duke began the match by capturing the doubles point, despite an 8-2 loss from the sixth-ranked pair of Bercek and freshman Jessi Robinson.
"[Bercek's injury] was some of it, but I think as a team they came out kind of flat," Ashworth said. "Neither one of them had played against N.C. State before, and they came out and thought they would win easily."
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