Before their match against No. 8 California, the ninth-seeded Blue Devils were undefeated when they started a match by winning the lone doubles point. Seventeen doubles points, 17 wins.
So when it beat the Golden Bears in two of the three doubles matches to take the point, Duke felt confident about its chances to advance to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
Unfortunately for Duke, though, win No. 18 did not bounce its way as it lost a heartbreaker to Cal 4-3 in the Sweet 16 in Tulsa, Okla. last Thursday.
Junior Melissa Mang and sophomore Amanda Granson, the seventh-ranked doubles team in the country, beat the Bears' tandem, 8-6. Their counterparts in the third doubles spot, freshmen Ellah Nze and Reka Zsilinska, won the much-coveted doubles point by winning, 8-6, as well. The Blue Devil victory gave Cal (18-5) the tough assignment of being the first team this year to beat the Blue Devils (20-5) in four of the six singles matches.
"It takes a really good effort from someone to be able to beat us in four singles matches, and [Cal] was able to do that," head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "We did not play as well as we would have liked, but Cal played really well."
The Bears wasted little time evening the score of the match as Bojana Bubosic defeated Duke junior Jessi Robinson 6-1, 6-0. The Blue Devils, however, erased the deficit quickly as Granson charged back to down her opponent 6-4, 7-5 in one the many tight matches of the day. Granson's victory at fifth singles kept her undefeated in NCAA tournament play.
Continuing with the back-and-forth nature of the match, Cal posted the next victory to tie the match up at 2-2 when Nze lost a close match in the second-singles spot to Marina Cossou, 7-5, 7-6 (3). Nze's doubles partner, No. 24 Zsilinska, countered with a commanding win in the No. 3 spot 6-1, 6-3.
After trading punches the whole match, Duke looked to steal the lead once and for all and take the match with one more victory. The Blue Devils thought they had grasped that opportunity when Mang rallied to win the second set of her match, 6-4, after losing 6-1 in the first.
"When Melissa won the second set after losing the first set, I thought that that would give us some momentum," Ashworth said. "I thought that was a big turning point emotionally for our team, too. And it was. We were not able to capitalize on it, but we were able to feed off of her winning the second set."
But for the Blue Devils, the momentum and emotional high would both fade quickly as Mang lost the third set, 1-6, to even the match at three.
Then, it was the Golden Bears who took advantage of the momentum shift as Susie Babos put the final nail in Duke's coffin by winning the top singles match against sophomore Tara Iyer 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Even though the team is done, the season did not finish last Thursday for four of the eight Blue Devils.
Zsilinszka beat Washington's Venise Chan 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the NCAA Championship Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla. Zsilinszka turned a 3-2 advantage into a 6-2 win in the first set. She then broke Chan's serve at 5-5 in the second set and held her own serve to advance to play USC's Lindsey Nelson Thursday at 1 p.m.
With the win, Zsilinszka improved to 39-5 on the year.
Fellow freshman Nze lost her first-round match to UCLA's Andrea Remynse 6-3, 6-4.
Duke's top doubles team of Granson and Mang, seeded seventh in the tournament, open play Thursday at 3 p.m. against Marshall's Kellie Schmitt and Karolina Soor.
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