Duke fell to Oklahoma in the second match of its San Diego road swing.
The Blue Devils took on the No. 2 Sooners on the West Coast Saturday coming off a decisive 7-0 victory against unranked San Diego State Thursday, but Oklahoma snapped No. 10 Duke’s five-match win streak with a close 4-3 victory at the University of San Diego’s Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.
Duke's top two were no match for Oklahoma’s top-ranked players, and the Blue Devils (9-4) came up just short of stopping the Sooners' seven-game win steak.
"It was a great college tennis match, and I am proud of how we fought and gave ourselves a chance to win after losing the doubles point," head coach Ramsey Smith said. "Oklahoma is No. 2 in the country for a reason and we pushed them all the way to the end."
The Blue Devils had a rough start when the Sooners (15-1) took the doubles point. In the top doubles match, Duke senior Fred Saba and junior Raphael Hemmeler lost 8-3 to the Oklahoma tandem of Dane Webb and Andrew Harris. Sophomores Josh Levine and Daniel McCall suffered an 8-5 loss to Peerakit Siributwong and Nick Papac in the No. 3 doubles slot. Duke also trailed in the remaining doubles match, at a narrow 4-5 margin, when it was called.
The Blue Devils rebounded from their doubles-point loss by taking the first sets on three courts in singles competition.
Duke tied the match in singles with a win from Saba against Andrew Harris 6-1, 6-3. The Blue Devils took the lead when Hemmeler won in straight sets against Papac.
"Fred and Rafa rebounded quickly from their first doubles loss of the dual season by giving us the first two singles points," Smith said.
As the No. 30-ranked singles player, Michael Redlicki holds the highest ranking of any Blue Devil.
The Sooners boast two top-five ranked singles players. Duke lost at their top two singles positions, as second-ranked Axel Alvarez defeated Redlicki 6-4, 6-3, and fifth-ranked Guillermo Alcorta topped junior No. 40 Jason Tahir 6-2, 6-4.
In the sixth singles position Levine split sets with Austin Siegel, faltering in the set in the middle, but took control at the end to take the third set and won 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
"Josh competed extremely well and continued his excellent play," Smith said.
The match came down to the third set in fourth singles. Sophomore Bruno Semenzato lost the first set, but came back to win the second. He was unable to keep his momentum going and fell to Webb losing the singles point and the match for Duke.
Although Duke played well against Oklahoma, the team left room for further improvement against other top programs.
"As a team we need to clean up a few things in order to push through and win matches like this against the elite programs in the country," Smith said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.