Facing their toughest competition of the season, the No. 15 Blue Devils dropped two tight matches against ranked teams at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center this weekend.
Duke fell 4-3 to No. 8 Illinois (2-1) Friday and went down by the same score against No. 11 Notre Dame Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils lost decisive third sets in the final match of each contest.
"[The Fighting Irish and the Fighting Illini] have been good for a while, and we always have battles with them," associate head coach Ramsey Smith said Sunday. "It's just two really tough losses... it's kind of a tough one to swallow back-to-back. But they are both top-15 teams and compete really well, and they just found a way to win."
Duke (2-2) got off to a fast start against Notre Dame (5-1), earning the doubles point 2-1. Senior David Goulet and freshman Christopher Price were able to come away with a victory, while Reid Carleton and partner Kiril Dimitrov won the point for the Blue Devils.
Singles play also started well Sunday, with Carleton cruising to a 6-1, 6-0 victory as the third seed. Goulet, playing in the first slot for the first time this season, also played well enough for an impressive 7-5, 6-4 win against Brett Helgeson. Duke was beaten in the remaining four singles matches, however, and Duke freshman Jared Pinsky dropped a hotly-contested three-set match to ensure an Irish victory.
Duke did not win the doubles point against the Illini Friday, but the rest of the match was quite similar to Sunday's affair. Goulet, Carleton and sophomore Dylan Arnould claimed singles victories, but Illinois pulled out the other three singles matches for the win.
After Sunday's match, Smith was somewhat displeased with his team's energy, but picked out Goulet and Carleton's strong performances as the highlights of the weekend.
"For Goulet, that's back-to-back wins against top-15 players," Smith said. "He just volleyed unbelievably, perfect energy, he just did everything right. Reid has a huge game, and neither one of them had any letups."
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