Duke hosts Wildcats in meeting of national contenders

As far as the regular season goes, they don’t get much bigger than this one.

And when top-ranked Northwestern visits Durham this afternoon, No. 5 Duke should feel good about its chances of beating one of its top rivals in its quest for a repeat national championship.

“[Northwestern] won the National Indoors, and I’m sure they know we knocked them off a year ago, and they are coming in with a lot to play for,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “And we are, too. It’s our last nonconference match and we want to end that part of the season on a high note.”

The Wildcats (13-2) have already shown how good they can be this season with a win in February at National Team Indoors, a tournament Duke bowed out of at the semifinal stage. The Blue Devils (12-2) were beaten by North Carolina, who Northwestern defeated in the final.

Despite the fact that Duke and Northwestern play in different conferences, the two teams have some history. In a scheduling quirk, the Blue Devils and Wildcats met twice last season—once in Wisconsin at National Team Indoors, a match Northwestern eked out, and again two weeks later in Evanston, Ill., where Duke upset the then-No. 1 Wildcats.

This season, Northwestern boasts two singles players in the nation’s top 50—No. 11 Maria Mosolova and No. 43 Samantha Murray—and a trio of quality doubles teams that could trouble the Blue Devils. But Duke comes into the match on the back of two straight wins. Since a disappointing 7-0 defeat to Florida nearly a month ago, the Blue Devils have taken down William and Mary, and more importantly, No. 3 Notre Dame, the squad that gave Northwestern its only loss of the season thus far.

One player the Wildcats won’t have to deal with is former Duke star Mallory Cecil, who turned pro after winning an individual NCAA championship last spring. Hers turned out to be the decisive match in both meetings with Northwestern last season: At Team Indoors, Cecil took the first set from Mosolova before dropping the next two, and the Wildcats won the dual match, 4-3. But at the rematch in Evanston, Cecil pulled out a thrilling three-setter to give Duke the win. The Blue Devils lost just twice more all year en route to a national title.

In Cecil’s place, Duke will be forced to rely on a trio of youngsters who have already carved out roles for themselves on this year’s team—not as individual national title contenders like Cecil, but as solid contributors at the lower singles spots and in doubles play. Monica Gorny, Mary Clayton and Jessica Stiles have all been critical performers for the Blue Devils so far this year, and their play could be the difference Wednesday against the Wildcats.