It was a busy weekend for Duke, as the team split to play in two separate tournaments.
While freshmen Beatrice Capra and Ester Goldfeld played at the ITA National Indoor Championship in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., five other Blue Devils competed locally at the Kitty Harrison Invitational. Capra and Goldfeld fell in the quarterfinals of the doubles bracket, and Capra came out on top in a battle of the nation’s top two freshmen, beating UCLA’s Robin Anderson 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) to win the singles consolation bracket.
“It was a good way for the team to finish the fall season,” head coach Jaime Ashworth said. “We got better as the weekend went on.”
After receiving a bye in the round of 32, Capra and Goldfeld pulled out a gritty 9-7 comeback win against Oklahoma’s Marie-Pier Huet and Whitney Ritchie. After their opponents jumped out to a 7-6 lead, the pair was able to win three straight games to seal the victory. The pair had no such luck in the quarterfinals, though, losing a close match to third-seeded Shanon Mathews and Kristy Frilling from Notre Dame 8-5.
“They made it to the quarterfinals, but they’ll only get better,” head coach Jaime Ashworth said. “They’ve only lost a couple of matches, and against really good teams.”
After losing her opening singles match Thursday to Texas’ 14th-ranked Aerial Ellis, Capra entered the singles consolation draw. The Elliot City, Md. native had little difficulty dispatching the nation’s 29th-ranked player, Tennessee’s Natalie Pluskota, winning 6-1, 6-1. Capra continued to roll on Saturday, defeating 89th-ranked Samantha Vickers from Tulsa 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals and then following up with a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal victory over Texas A&M’s Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar.
“Capra’s obviously had a great fall with some really big wins,” Ashworth said. “She was disappointed to lose in the first round in New York, but then to come back and win four straight matches? That’s not easy to do.”
Back in Durham, several other Blue Devils saw action in the Kitty Harrison Invitational. The team competed against N.C. State, Virginia, Princeton, Marshall, Furman, North Carolina and Texas A&M, playing a total of 28 matches. Due to inclement weather, a number of sets had to be shortened and were played at Duke’s Sheffield Tennis Center instead of the Tar Heels’ Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
The Blue Devils fared well, sweeping the Paladins and the Aggies in singles. Freshman Monica Turewiscz finished with a perfect 3-0 record and took second in the tournament for singles.
“The weekend went well,” said Ashworth. “We don’t play again until January so we have a little bit of time now where we can work on some things.”
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