Duke left Campbell Thursday night with a loss, but most of the team walked off winners.
Despite winning six of the nine total individual matches, the Blue Devils fell to the Camels 19-17.
Duke (0-5) got off to a slow start, losing four of the first five matches of the dual meet. Duke was forced to forfeit the 125-pound match, giving Campbell six points and a commanding 16-3 advantage.
“The guys fought hard,” head coach Clare Anderson said. “We’ve been battling with injury and obviously having to forfeit at 125 cost us the match.”
However, what seemed like a blowout quickly turned into a roaring comeback.
The rally started with a decisive victory courtesy of redshirt freshman Brandon Gambucci at 133 pounds. Gambucci was able to secure a takedown and an escape en route to a dominant 8-0 major decision over Joey Rizzolino.
Freshman Tanner Hough was the next Blue Devil to take a major decision, defeating Jordan Tolbert 14-5. Hough, at 141 pounds, accumulated seven points in the final four minutes of the match, securing his seventh major decision of the season.
With only three matches remaining and the deficit cut to five points, A.J. Guardado battled Mark Hartenstine in a tight matchup. Guardado took the lead into the final period, but Hartenstine was able to secure a takedown less than a minute in to take a 2-1 lead. The score would remain unchanged until Guardado was able to score two points on a reversal with 31 seconds left to take the victory.
Just as it looked like everything was going Duke’s way, Nick Rex defeated Immanuel Kerr-Brown 3-2 to put the meet out of reach. Despite trailing in the match, Ryan Harding recorded a takedown with 47 seconds remaining to score a 4-3 victory over Ryan Krecker.
“Right now we’re losing a lot of close matches,” Anderson said. “So that’s something we need to change moving forward. We’re a young team. Right now a lot of our guys are just learning how to adjust from the high school to the college level.”
Duke will return to action Jan. 28 against Boston University and Bridgewater State.
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