Duke extended its unbeaten home record to 7-0 over the weekend, recording hard-earned victories against conference rivals Florida State and Miami Friday and Sunday, respectively.
The No. 21 Blue Devils (11-6, 4-1 in the ACC) jumped out to an early lead against the No. 27 Seminoles (11-7, 3-4) Friday at Ambler Tennis Stadium by winning a hotly-contested doubles point. After the teams split the matches at the first and second seeds, Duke's third seed of Peter Rodrigues and Kiril Dimitrov overcame FSU's Jean-Yves Aubone and Bradley Mixson 8-6 to earn the point.
In singles, Duke led throughout most of the afternoon after Joey Atas easily won his match in two quick sets, and Dimitrov fought his way to a 7-5, 7-6 win as the top seed to clinch the 5-2 victory for the Blue Devils.
"I thought our guys were really competitive against a tough Florida State team," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "We played every point with intensity and fire, and we were very happy to come away with the win."
Sunday's match against the Hurricanes (9-9, 4-3) was a rematch of the two teams' meeting in January's Miami Invitational, in which the Hurricanes got the best of Duke in Coral Gables. On that occasion, Miami's doubles performed stronger than the Blue Devils, but the Duke coaching staff was able to make some adjustments.
"We had a lot of notes on them, but when we saw them down there in January, it was a chance to size up their strengths and weaknesses and put together a game plan," Lapidus said.
The match began at Ambler Tennis Stadium as well but was moved into the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center early in singles play because of inclimate weather. At that point, the Blue Devils held a 1-0 lead thanks to a doubles victory by Dylan Arnould and Alex Stone.
Once inside, Duke found itself in an extremely competitive match, and Miami's Luigi D'Agord set the tone with an emphatic two-set win over the Blue Devils' Atas.
The dual match advanced to 3-3, and the only match still in progress involved fifth seed Arnould and Miami's Barnabas Carrega.
Arnould lost the first set 7-5, but came back to dominate the second, 6-1. In the deciding third set, Arnould fought off two game points at 3-3, broke his opponent's serve and did not lose another game on his way to a 6-3 clincher. The win earned the Blue Devils a 4-3 overall victory over the Hurricanes.
"Dylan has come through three or four times now with the last match in the third set," Lapidus said. "He is just a very good pressure player, and he's able to raise the level when the time comes. But I think Dylan was certainly glad to go indoors, because the Miami guys aren't as comfortable playing inside, and we were very used to it."
Duke will look to extend its four-game winning streak when it takes on Wake Forest Wednesday afternoon at Ambler. The match against the Demon Deacons will mark the fourth game of the team's six-game homestand.
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