SPORTS  |  TENNIS

Blue Devils split tough Virginia road trip

Coming into the weekend, Duke had been playing some of its best tennis of the season, winning seven of its last eight matches.

The Blue Devils (15-8, 8-3 in the ACC) play Friday and Sunday, however, didn't quite continue that trend.

Duke fell by by a score of 6-1 Friday at No. 2 Virginia (22-3, 10-0), but rallied back Sunday to defeat No. 38 Virginia Tech 5-2 in Blacksburg.

"It was great to see the guys bounce back from a tough loss on Friday and get this win," head coach Jay Lapidus said of his team's performance against the Hokies.

The Blue Devils controlled Sunday's match against Virginia Tech (12-11, 3-8) from the opening serve, and the Hokies had very few opportunities to upset Duke.

While No. 5 Joey Atas and David Goulet lost in a tiebreaker to the 28th-ranked pair of Nicolas Delgado and Pedro Graber, third seed Peter Rodrigues and Kiril Dimitrov won comfortably, 8-4.

The second seed of Dylan Arnould and Ned Samuelson earned the doubles point for the Blue Devils with another 8-4 win.

The Hokies, whose roster boasts players from seven different countries, kept the singles matches close at almost every position. The Blue Devils, however, soon pulled away.

At the top two seeds, Dimitrov and Atas cruised to straight-set victories. Arnould was defeated at the fourth spot, 7-6. 6-4, but Goulet clinched Duke's eighth ACC win with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Hokie Brandon Corace.

In contrast, the Blue Devils struggled from the start against Virginia Friday in Charlottesville.

Doubles play posed a real challenge, as the Cavaliers swept all three matches.

In the two closest contests, the pair of Goulet and Atas lost in a tiebreaker, 9-8, and Dimitrov and Rodrigues also dropped a tight match, 9-7.

Singles play went almost indentically-Duke played hard and kept almost every set close, but recorded only one singles victory. Rodrigues, the 115th-ranked player in the country, won in straight sets.

This weekend marked the end of the regular season for the Blue Devils, and the team will now prepare for the ACC tournament in Cary. Play begins Thursday afternoon at the Cary Tennis Park.

Duke looks to use the next few days to prepare for the difficult conference competition.

"Now we'll get to work this week on the practice courts and turn our attention to the ACC tournament," Lapidus said.

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