The Blue Devils will hit the road for a pair of conference matches in Florida, looking to bounce back from their first ACC loss to Georgia Tech Saturday.
No. 24 Duke will face No. 16 Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., Thursday and Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., Saturday. The squad is undefeated on the road against ACC opponents.
The Hurricanes also suffered their first loss in conference play Sunday, falling to Virginia Tech 4-3 in Blacksburg, Va. With the Miami squad looking for redemption, the Blue Devils cannot afford to come out flat in Thursday’s match.
“We have to play with a lot a lot of emotion,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “The next couple matches will show the kind of character we have. They are not easy places to play. We have to play with a purpose.”
Stephanie Wagner—the No. 6 singles player in the most recent ITA poll—will likely take court one for the Hurricanes (11-4, 7-1 in the ACC). Wagner has defeated seven ranked singles players in 2015. Duke will also have its hands full on courts two through four with four additional Miami athletes ranked in the top 100—No. 36 Sinead Lohan, No. 63 Clementina Riobueno and No. 96 Wendy Zhang.
Wanger sits at No. 6 in the doubles poll with partner Lina Lileikite, but the pair have not defeated another nationally ranked duo this season. Riobueno and Monique Albuquerque—the No. 29 pair—have collected eight wins in their 10 matches on court two to become the Hurricane’s winningest doubles partnership this season.
The Blue Devils (12-6, 7-1) boast four singles players with six wins so far in 2015 conference play.
No. 38 senior Ester Goldfeld collected her 100th career win March 22 against Virginia’s Danielle Collins to become the 24th Duke player to surpass the triple-digit mark. Goldfeld will aim to earn the 102nd win of her career and her 23rd victory on the season Thursday.
Redshirt senior Rachel Kahan is seven singles victories short of the 100-win mark and has dropped only one match in ACC competition this season. Senior Annie Mulholland lost her first conference match Sunday against Georgia Tech. Freshman Samantha Harris—No. 55 in the ITA singles poll—has started her Duke career with an 18-6 record that includes just two losses in conference play.
The Seminoles (11-7, 4-5) are lead by No. 93 Daneika Borthwick, who holds a 7-0 record on court one heading into Florida State’s Thursday match against No. 2 North Carolina. In doubles play, Gabriella Castaneda and Emily Fanning will look to defend a six-match streak on court two.
The Blue Devils have defeated the Seminoles in the teams’ past three meetings with the overall series standing decidedly 30-5 in Duke’s favor.
Florida’s warm weather may be a factor in the Blue Devils’ performance this week, but Ashworth is optimistic that the return to outdoor play is to his team’s advantage.
“We are a much better outdoor team than indoors, so hopefully we thrive in those conditions,” Ashworth said. “Hydration is the biggest thing we can control. We don’t have a way to make it 110 degrees on our courts right now, so staying hydrated and emphasizing preparation in that way is the best we can do.”
The temperature is not expected to fall below 80 degrees before Duke takes the court against Miami Thursday at 5 p.m.
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