The Blue Devils suffered their first loss in ACC play against Georgia Tech Sunday, just a day after extending their winning streak to eight with a win against Pittsburgh.
No. 17 Duke easily defeated the Panthers 7-0 Saturday but struggled in singles play Sunday, dropping the match 4-3 to the Yellow Jackets at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
Battling through three close matches, the Blue Devils clinched the doubles point after a tie-breaker on court three. But the squad did not carry that energy into the singles matches. Duke grabbed an early lead on five of the six courts but was unable to put away the pivotal singles points, giving Georgia Tech the chance to pull itself back into the match.
“We won a tight doubles point, so we should have had more emotion at the start of our singles,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “But we came out flat and let Georgia Tech hang around. We didn’t have anybody step up and get a quick win in singles like we have done the last couple matches. And that let Georgia Tech believe.”
On court three, Yellow Jacket Kendal Woodard quickly claimed the first set and never gave freshman Samantha Harris a lead in the second set, despite the Melbourne, Australia, native hitting a number of put-away shots. Woodard claimed Georgia Tech’s first point of the match 6-3, 6-4.
Junior Beatrice Capra and redshirt senior Rachel Kahan put the Blue Devils back in the lead with two-set victories on courts one and four, respectively. Capra defeated No. 92 Johnnise Renaud 6-3, 6-1 and Kahan traded games with Alexis Prokopuik until she broke the Yellow Jacket’s serve. The Unionville, Conn., native then cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win.
With the score 3-1, Duke (12-6, 7-1 in the ACC) needed one more win to claim the team victory, but the tight matches on the three remaining courts did not look good for the Blue Devils.
Sophomore Chalena Scholl opened the match ahead 2-1 on court six, but could not fend off Megan Kurey and dropped the first set 7-5. At No. 2 singles, No. 38 Ester Goldfeld took the first set 6-2 but lost the next 10 games, falling behind Georgia Tech's Paige Hourigan 4-0 in the third set. And on court five senior Annie Mulholland gave up the first set to Alexa Anton-Ohlmeyer 6-3.
“I don’t think our decision-making was as good as it should have been,” Ashworth said. “We were playing like if we hit winners, they would be worth five points. That’s not how it works. You have to grind out every point and be disciplined. So we were very uncharacteristic in our singles today.”
Scholl rallied to even the score 4-4 in the second set, but Kurey took the next two games and the second set 6-4. Goldfeld won three straight games and only trailed 4-3 in the third set, looking to make a comeback and earn the third singles win. But the Brooklyn, N.Y., native was frustrated by her own errors and could not take control of the match, losing 6-2, 0-6, 3-6.
The deciding point of the match came down to the result on court five. Fighting off match point, Mulholland almost forced a third set. But with the score 6-5 in favor of Anton-Ohlmeyer, a shot that went wide at the end of a long rally gave Georgia Tech the second set 7-5 and the match, 4-3.
Georgia Tech (8-6, 5-3) had given Duke trouble from the start of the match with Anton-Ohlmeyer and Kurey jumping out to a six-game lead against Goldfeld and sophomore Alyssa Smith on court two and winning the match 8-4. The Blue Devils were able to hold off the Yellow Jackets on courts one and three as Mulholland and Harris defeated Woodard and Hourigan 8-5, and Capra and Kahan survived a tie-breaker to claim the set 8-7 (7-2).
But Duke could not fend off the upset after its strong start in doubles, suffering its first loss in ACC play.
“When we have a home match, we have to take advantage of it,” Ashworth said. “We have done a good job over the last two or three years in home conference matches, so to let one slip by today that we really should have won is frustrating.”
The Blue Devils will have to bounce back from their first conference loss quickly as they will face No. 16 Miami and Florida State on the road Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
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