Riding a four-match win streak, Duke hardly noticed the absence of its freshman sensation, Henrique Cunha, in singles play Wednesday in an easy 6-1 victory over N.C. State (13-7, 1-4 in the ACC).
Junior Reid Carleton, who has struggled of late, stepped up big in a decisive 6-1, 6-3 victory over No. 70 Jaime Pulgar at the top slot. The Wolfpack sophomore was recently named ACC Player of the Week after his shocking defeat of Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech, the fifth-ranked player in the country.
“It was a very large win for him confidence-wise,” assistant coach Josh Goffi said. “He was in a little rut, but he worked through it today and beat a very good player at number one.”
While Cunha continues to nurse his sprained ankle—the freshman played doubles Wednesday but sat out the singles portion—the rest of the Blue Devils’ singles players have risen to the challenge of playing higher in the lineup. Wednesday, in particular, No. 3 Torsten Wietoska and No. 4 David Holland played efficient tennis, winning their respective matches 6-4, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-2.
“Those guys stepped up big today,” Goffi said. “We’ve played without Henrique for the last four matches and it has really gotten our team to come together. [It] has made our team stronger.”
Duke (10-5, 3-0), which remained undefeated in conference play, has looked particularly impressive against its ACC opponents. In their three matches, the Blue Devils have defeated conference counterparts by a combined score of 17-4.
“We’ve earned our stripes [in nonconference play], and when we go into battle in the ACC, we feel like we can beat anyone,” Goffi said. “The win against USC really gave us a lot of confidence.”
Duke’s ACC schedule, however, gets considerably more difficult this weekend as the Blue Devils will face No. 18 Virginia Tech Friday and No. 1 Virginia Sunday, both at Ambler Tennis Stadium. Nonetheless, Goffi remains confident in his team’s ability to compete against the highest-quality opponents.
“We’re riding a wave of confidence, [and] the most important thing we can keep in our minds is to stay strong mentally and, most importantly, stay positive,” Goffi said. “If we keep on being positive and working towards things, we’re going to get what we want.”
Victories over the Hokies and Cavaliers would be especially sweet given the weekend sweep Duke endured last April. The Blue Devils lost two close matches, 5-2 and 4-3, and are now looking for payback in order to improve to 5-0 in the ACC.
“We have our biggest weekend coming up,” Goffi said. “We’re definitely looking to get a little revenge on Virginia Tech first, and look to carry the momentum into Sunday against the No. 1 team in the country.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.