In its first road contest of the spring season, Duke was no match for the No. 9 Gators, who recorded their 74th consecutive regular season home victory over the No. 6 Blue Devils Sunday, 7-0.
Florida (9-2) stormed out of the gate at Linder Stadium in Gainesville, Fla, and never looked back. The No. 3 doubles tandem of Marritt Boonstra and Allie Will easily defeated Duke’s top pair of Amanda Granson and Ellah Nze, 8-3. The Gators then pulled an upset at No. 2 doubles, defeating the No. 24 pair of Elizabeth Plotkin and Reka Zsilinszka 8-4, and securing the doubles point for Florida.
Singles play followed a similar tenor. The Gators quickly built leads on nearly every court and took the first set in every match but No. 5 singles. The Blue Devils (10-2) battled back but had little success.
Zsilinskza, Duke’s highest-ranked singles player, didn’t win a single game in her first set and fell in a tiebreaker to Boonstra in the second to lose in straight sets. Plotkin, who had been undefeated in 11 matches, dropped her first result of the season to 10th-ranked Will, 6-1, 6-1.
Sophomore Monica Gorny had an opportunity to score Duke’s first point of the match after winning her first set against No. 86 Caroline Hitimana. However, Hitimana took the second set and won the 10-point tiebreaker third set to give the Gators a clean sweep.
The Blue Devils have a break before resuming play in Puerto Rico March 11 against William and Mary.
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