The Blue Devils split a weekend slate of ACC road matches with a Friday win against Clemson and a Sunday loss to Virginia.
Duke traveled to Clemson, S.C., Friday to take on the Tigers and came away with a decisive victory. After dropping the doubles point to Clemson, the Blue Devils rallied to win five of six singles matches. The Blue Devils defeated the Tigers by a score of 5-2, but then fell in Charlottesville, Va., by a score of 6-1 Sunday.
Against Clemson (10-11, 1-6 in the ACC), No. 11-ranked Nicolas Alvarez won his match against Alejandro Augustu in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and No. 41 Jason Tahir battled to defeat Hunter Harrington in three sets, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-3. Raphael Hemmeler and Bruno Semenzato each won their matches in two sets, and T.J. Pura recorded Duke’s final win of the match by defeating Hampton Drake in a match that went to a 10-point super tiebreaker.
The win against Clemson brought Duke to 4-1 on the road for the season, with Duke’s only loss away from home a 6-1 defeat at Virginia Tech, but that number doubled after Sunday’s defeat at the hands of the Cavaliers (14-3, 7-0)—also in the Old Dominion State.
“We came out slightly tentative,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. "To be honest, [Virginia] just rolled us in doubles. We got beat up in doubles.”
At doubles on court one, the No. 8-ranked doubles tandem of Luca Corinteli and Ryan Shane defeated Duke's 12th-ranked team of Hemmeler and Alvarez by a score of 8-3. Then, at No. 3 doubles, Virginia's Mitchell Frank and Collin Altamirano defeated Semenzato and Chris Mengel by a score of 8-1.
With the doubles point already secured for the Cavaliers (14-3, 7-0 in the ACC), the No. 2 doubles match was left unfinished, but Tahir and Josh Levine were down 2-7 to Cavaliers Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger.
“[Sunday] we just got beat,” Smith said. “They were just the better team in doubles. We just need to keep getting better at doubles. There are definitely a few things that we can continue to improve on. [The doubles point] is definitely a key point. Although we have proven that we can win without the doubles point, it definitely helps, so [doubles] is going to be a focus for us.”
Duke (17-3, 4-2) did not fare well in singles play either, as the team went a collective 1-5 against the Cavaliers. Alvarez lost his match 5-7, 3-6 to No. 29 Frank and No. 41 Tahir lost to No. 6 Shane 6-7 (3-7), 5-7 at the top of the lineup.
At No. 3 singles, Hemmeler recorded Duke’s lone win with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against No. 10 Kwiatkowski.
“It was a huge win for [Hemmeler],” Smith said. “He played well all spring, and it was his first ever victory [against a top-10 opponent]. From the very beginning, he was extremely aggressive. He trusted his shots, went after his shots and came to the net a lot. He really competed well, especially in the first set, and he had to play from behind a little bit. Kwiatkowski is an incredibly player, and I am really proud of [Hemmeler] for getting the win.”
Duke was unable to get back into the match in any of the lower-seeded singles matches, as Semenzato fell to No. 55 Altamirano in two sets, and Levine and Pura lost at No. 5 and No. 6 singles.
Virginia clinched the match against Pura, as Heinrik Wiersholm took down the sophomore by a score of 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 10-2. Pura stole the first set in a tiebreaker, but Wiersholm was able to force and eventually win a 10-point super tiebreaker to secure the victory for the Cavaliers.
Despite the end result, Smith was impressed with his team’s singles play and overall performance.
“Hopefully we will get the chance to play Virginia again,” Smith said. “[Virginia is] the standard in the ACC, and they have proven themselves to be the best team for multiple years now, so it was good to get to face them, especially on the road. In singles, we pushed them hard, and they had to play really well to get that win.”
Duke faces another set of ACC matches Friday and Saturday when the Blue Devils host Notre Dame and Boston College.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.