Duke kicked off its first ACC matches of the season with mixed results this weekend, losing 5-2 to No. 30 Clemson and defeating No. 42 Georgia Tech 6-1.
"We had tough luck [Saturday], and it was really good to come back from the loss," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "Our doubles are starting to look a lot better, and I'm happy about that. We're a good team this year. I'm feeling comfortable, and I'm hopeful we keep this momentum going this next week."
Saturday's match started on the right track, as No. 17 (8-6, 1-1 in the ACC) Duke took the doubles point.
Senior Joey Atas and junior David Goulet combined for an 8-6 win over Clement Riex and Ryan Young, and senior Peter Rodrigues and sophomore Kiril Dimitrov pulled off another 8-6 win over Rok Bizjak and Carlos Alvarez.
But Duke soon lost the 1-0 lead in singles play, losing five of the six matches to end the tally at 5-2.
Dylan Arnould defeated Alvarez 6-3, 6-4 to notch Duke's only singles point.
The Blue Devils recovered from the upset in Atlanta Sunday, as Duke seized the doubles point and came away with five of six singles victories.
"I played pretty well today-managed to beat him 6-1, 6-3," Peter Rodrigues said. "That was pretty positive, and I managed to get off the court pretty quickly. I'm pretty confident going into my next matches."
Women's tennis wins two matches
The Blue Devils posted two doubles sweeps for twin 6-1 wins on the road this weekend against Boston College and Maryland.
"This is the toughest part of our schedule, and to start with two road conference wins is really good for us," head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "I'm really happy with our doubles-we played two matches of really solid doubles."
In Friday's match, the No. 15 Blue Devils (9-3, 4-0 in the ACC) shut down the Eagles for the doubles point with 12th-ranked senior Daniela Bercek and sophomore Melissa Mang leading the charge with an 8-5 win.
Plotkin, Granson, Robinson, junior Tory Zawacki and senior Clelia Deltour notched five singles wins to seal Duke's 6-1 rout over BC.
In College Park, Md. Sunday, the Blue Devils breezed past the Terrapins to improve to a perfect 4-0 in the ACC. For the second time of the weekend, the three Blue Devils duos swept their opponents to head 1-0 into singles play, where Duke took five wins. -Diana Ni
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