Duke wrapped up its home schedule for the season in style this weekend, recording two dominating 7-0 wins against ACC rivals Boston College and Maryland.
"It makes us feel good to win 7-0 because we've had tons of close matches," senior Joey Atas said. "Especially our match against Maryland, they have been giving some other teams troubles and the fact that we beat them 7-0 gives us a lot of confidence."
The No. 16 Blue Devils (13-7, 6-2 in the ACC) controlled both matches-held in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center because of cold weather-from start to finish, and were never really threatened by either opponent.
"It was great to get two wins this weekend before hitting the road to end the regular season," Duke head coach Jay Lapidus said. "This should give us some good momentum going into the final week before the ACC tournament."
The Blue Devils opened the weekend against the unranked Eagles (4-15, 0-8 in the ACC) Friday and cruised to victory against perhaps the weakest team on their schedule.
In doubles play, Duke won all three matches by 8-5 scores to jump out to an early lead. The Blue Devils' singles play went similarly, with all six players defeating their opponents in straight sets. In fact, only fourth-seeded Dylan Arnould was even taken to a tiebreak, and he won that handily by a score of 7-0.
Saturday's match against No. 55 Maryland (10-7, 2-6 in the ACC) figured to be tougher, as the Terrapins had played well in the early part of the season. The Terps, however, had lost five straight dual matches before traveling to Durham, and the Blue Devils made sure that streak continued.
The fifth-ranked doubles team of David Goulet and Joey Atas set the tone early, controlling nearly every game in their match en route to an 8-3 victory as the top seed.
"Our games match really well together," Atas said of his partnership with Goulet. "We are both just doubles players with good serves and volleys, and we have good chemistry on the court, so it's easy and fun for us to play together."
Dominating their doubles play, though, was not as simple a task for the Blue Devils as it had been Friday, as Arnould and partner Ned Samuelson lost the only match of the weekend for Duke. But Kiril Dimitrov and Peter Rodrigues, the third seed, won 8-5 to earn the doubles point for the Blue Devils.
After the break, Duke played some of its best singles of the season in its rout of the Terrapins. While Arnould simply overpowered his opponent, Atas and Goulet both attacked the net constantly and volleyed their ways to victories. Rodrigues and Dimitrov also recorded straight set singles wins, and Alex Stone won his match in a third set tiebreaker.
Duke next takes on No. 5 North Carolina Wednesday in Chapel Hill.
"We were able to stay focused this weekend since UNC is a couple of days from now, but we're going to have to play them tough," Atas said. "Every spot is important, and we are just focusing on a good practice and hopefully everything will click on Wednesday."
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