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Duke women's tennis survives Hurricanes to open ACC play 2-0

<p>Fueled by Samantha Harris' first win of the spring against a ranked opponent and Christina Makarova's match-clinching victory, the Blue Devils took down No. 13 Miami Sunday.</p>

Fueled by Samantha Harris' first win of the spring against a ranked opponent and Christina Makarova's match-clinching victory, the Blue Devils took down No. 13 Miami Sunday.

The Blue Devils started and finished with wins, bookending a close match that came down to the wire.

Two days after downing Florida State 6-1 in its ACC opener, No. 9 Duke outlasted No. 13 Miami 4-3 Sunday at Ambler Tennis Stadium in its first outdoor competition of the dual season. The Blue Devils had just one practice to adjust to outdoor conditions before the match, but it seemed one was enough.

“We had [practice] on Thursday when it was 40 degrees out, and that was it. It was definitely an adjustment that we had to make,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “I was so proud of our mental toughness and not letting [playing outdoors] be a factor…. Mentally, that was the best match we’ve played all season—by far.”

Christina Makarova broke a 3-3 tie in the match score to seal the win for Duke on court six, earn her fourth straight singles win. Once the final return from Miami's Clara Tanielian went long, the rest of the Blue Devils rushed to congratulate the redshirt freshman on her 6-4, 6-4 victory, ending what was almost a two-hour match.

“Christina’s just a nightmare to play. She gets every ball back...and she’s going to make you play. You have to hit a winner to beat her,” Ashworth said. “When you’re in a three-all match and it comes down to Christina being the last one, you want someone that’s going to make people put some balls in the court and not be afraid to go for a shot, but not give up a lot of free points. She was able to do that.”

Miami brought three ranked singles players and a top-15 doubles tandem to Durham, creating three top-30 matchups. In doubles, the No. 11 duo of Stephanie Wagner and Wendy Zhang took court one against Duke’s Beatrice Capra and Ellyse Hamlin—ranked 17th duo in the country. The Blue Devils were up to the challenge, opening the match with down-the-line backhand and overhead winners on the first two points to set the tone for the match.

All three courts stayed close, establishing a trend that continued into singles. Capra managed the first break of the day with a shot to the corner of the serving box to take a 3-1 lead, and did not slow from there, surging to a 6-2 win that left Duke awaiting a second victory to clinch the doubles point.

“[Doubles play is] huge in these matches and huge against a team like Miami [that has] got two of the best players in the country at one and two, and the depth—they’re top-10, top-15 in the country—they have a lot of experience,” Ashworth said.

Chalena Scholl and Alyssa Smith gave Duke (9-1, 2-0) the 1-0 advantage heading into singles play on court three despite Smith struggling with her serve early. The Hurricane pairing of Clementina Riobueno and Silvia Fuentes kept things close through five points, but not long after the court one finish, Scholl and Smith extended their win streak to four with a 6-3 victory to seize an early lead.

“Everyone knows how important that first doubles point is, so it was just great to be able to get ahead in the beginning,” sophomore Samantha Harris said. “We were all fired up from that and wanted to continue with the momentum going into singles.”

Scholl’s momentum carried right into singles, where she cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 win on court three, matching the score of her first ACC win against Florida State two days earlier. But Duke's 2-0 lead was soon cut in half.

On courts one and two, the Hurricanes posed dangerous threats No. 8 Wagner in the top spot against No. 26 Capra and No. 7 Sinead Lohan playing No. 28 Kaitlyn McCarthy on the next court. Both Miami players jumped out to quick leads, but McCarthy fought back to force a first-set tiebreaker.

Capra was not as fortunate, falling 1-6, 3-6 to Wagner, who continued her impressive weekend. The Hurricane sophomore—who has lost just once during the dual season—defeated No. 2 Hayley Carter of North Carolina Friday.

“You have four of the best 20, 25 players in the country playing,” Ashworth said. “We had opportunities, but when you have opportunities against people that good, you have to take advantage of the first opportunity that you get.”

Harris extended the Duke lead to 3-1 by taking down No. 73 Wendy Zhang on court four, moving Zhang all over the court and forcing long rallies throughout the afternoon. The 6-3, 6-4 win gave Harris her first against a ranked opponent during the dual season and extended her winning streak to five matches.

“I was well aware [of the score]. I knew that the match was going to be a close one and that we needed it,” Harris said. “I was just trying to take one point at a time and just make sure I was getting good clearance over the net and just making some balls, so that hopefully she would make the error.”

Miami battled back, though, grabbing another convincing win on court five, where No. 59 Hamlin seemed to be in control after winning the first set. But Miami's Silvia Fuentes had other ideas, claiming the next two sets to upset the freshman 3-6, 6-0, 6-1. Shortly afterward, Lohan outlasted McCarthy in a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 thriller to even the match at 3-3.

But Makarova stayed poised to take down Tanielian, avenging last year's Duke loss to the Hurricanes in Coral Gables, Fla.

Duke will stay at home for its third straight ACC dual Friday at 3 p.m. against Syracuse before hitting the road to face Virginia Tech Sunday at 1 p.m.

“[The win] really should give us a lot of confidence moving forward,” Ashworth said. “Ultimately we’re just trying to get ourselves in a good position come April for the tournament, but there’s so many matches between now and then. We just have to keep getting better every time we play. Today was just a great win and a win that should give us some confidence that we can beat anybody.”

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