Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth wanted to see his team play with emotion against Northwestern.
His players answered his call.
The No. 4 Blue Devils relied on their intensity to defeat No. 22 Northwestern 4-2 in singles and 3-0 in doubles Sunday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
“We played with more emotion in this match than we have all year and that’s something we have to do,” Ashworth said. "We’re not talented enough just to show up. Against Northwestern, typically, they’re a very emotional team.”
Duke (2-0) set the tone of the contest from the beginning with a strong doubles performance. The Blue Devil tandems of Ester Goldfeld and Alyssa Smith and Rachel Kahan along with Beatrice Capra broke early and breezed through the rest of their matches.
On court 3, freshman Samantha Harris and senior Annie Mulholland initially could not match the success of their fellow double teammates as they lost an early break to Alex Chatt and Rheeya Doshi. However, the duo fought back to break serve and clinch Duke’s doubles point with a 6-4 victory.
“Our doubles today was better than it’s been the entire spring so far,” Ashworth said. “They weren’t trying to work their way into the match. Against good teams you can’t do that.”
As singles began, the No. 22 Wildcats showed that they would not go down without a fight.
Playing as the fifth seed, Wildcat freshman Alex Chatt controlled her match against Smith and cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory to give Northwestern (1-1) its first win of the match.
Duke’s No. 1 seed, Capra, also struggled at first. Junior Alicia Barnett broke Capra’s serve to start off the match and took a commanding 4-1 lead in the first set. Yet, Capra fought back and finally evened the match at 5-5. From then on, she never looked back, as she won the next two games and second set 6-3.
After winning their first sets, 6-2 and 6-3 respectively, Harris and Kahan lost their second sets. Although Kahan could not regain her momentum against senior Lok Sze Leung and lost 6-3, Harris overpowered sophomore Manon Peri and rebounded with a 6-1 victory in the third set.
“I just tried to think about what I did in the first set that really got me that good led and that set pretty easily,” Harris said. “So I tried to increase my intensity, my emotions on the court and not make stupid errors.”
Goldfeld—Duke's No. 2 seed—and Mulholland—the Blue Devils' sixth seed—picked up where they left off in doubles. Both seniors never lost control and breezed through their matches to give Duke its singles win.
The Blue Devils will look to feed off the momentum of their win as they prepare of the ITA National Team Indoors Feb. 6. Ashworth knows his team must play emotionally in order to win an ITA indoor championship, and if this weekend was any indicator of things to come, Duke will be in good shape.
“Every team there is good, every player there is good and so I told them we had to set the tone for the week today,” Ashworth said. “We did that. I think they learned that if we do that, we can be a good team.”
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