With just one win in their two conference road matches entering Sunday, the Blue Devils were wary of playing on Louisville’s home courts for the first time in program history.
But sophomore Samantha Harris showed no signs of hesitation and set the tone for the Duke squad with dominant performances in both singles and doubles.
The Melbourne, Australia, native teamed with freshman Kaitlyn McCarthy to lead all players off the court with a 6-2 victory at No. 2 doubles and added a nearly perfect match at No. 3 singles to guide the Blue Devils to their second win of the weekend. No. 8 Duke took down the Panthers 5-2 in Pittsburgh Friday at the Alpha Tennis & Fitness Club and sailed past the Cardinals 6-1 in Louisville, Ky., Sunday at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.
Harris won her sixth singles match of the seven she has played since the ITA National Indoor Championships, blazing through two sets against Louisville’s Elle Stokes before most of the other courts had finished the first frame. The sophomore only dropped one game to Stokes in the 6-1, 6-0 rout to put the Blue Devils up 2-0 after they had sealed doubles point to open the match.
“When [Harris] is moving well and hitting her forehand heavy, she can be as dominant as anybody,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth told GoDuke.com. “She’s done that a couple times for us this year, playing well in doubles and then coming out and playing in a quick singles match. She played a great doubles match and it obviously carried over into singles. She played with a lot of confidence and was emotionally involved in the match, which is a big thing for her.”
Senior Beatrice Capra and freshman Ellyse Hamlin followed the example set by Harris and McCarthy on court two, quickly wrapping up their match against Sena Suswam and Ariana Rodriguez on court one, 6-1. In singles, junior Chalena Scholl and McCarthy followed Harris off the court, dealing Louisville two-set defeats on courts one and two.
Scholl had jumped up to court one to fill the shoes of her sidelined teammates Capra and McCarthy Mar. 4 and has thrived at the top singles spot, rolling through four straight matches without dropping a set.
The Pompano Beach, Fla., native claimed her 16th season victory Sunday to guide the Blue Devils (12-2, 4-1 in the ACC) to much-needed wins away from home. After rising to No. 67 in the ITA singles rankings following her victories against two opponents ranked in the top 50, the junior made her case for another move up the national rankings. Scholl defeated Louisville’s Jessie Lynn Paul 7-5, 6-4 in two close sets Sunday to put the Blue Devils up 3-1, two days after opening her second weekend at the No. 1 singles spot with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Lolade Ogungbesan of Pittsburgh.
McCarthy breezed through her first set against Rodriguez 6-0, but traded games with the Cardinal sophomore before breaking serve to take the second frame 6-4.
Hamlin and redshirt freshman Christina Makarova both needed a third set to claim Duke’s final two points of the match. Makarova faced a 4-1 deficit early in the first set against Olivia Boesing and won three consecutive games to tie the score, but could not come away with the advantage, dropping the first stanza, 6-7. The San Diego native found her footing in the next 10 games, claiming the second set 6-3. With the match already locked up, the two played a first-to-10 third set, which Makarova claimed 10-7.
Hamlin seemed to be off to a strong start with a 6-3 first set but faltered in the second frame, winning just two games against Suswam. The pair traded games on court three in the third frame, but Hamlin rediscovered her first-set success to win by a 6-4 score.
Louisville (7-10, 0-6) earned its lone point on court five, where Abbie Pahz defeated Alyssa Smith 6-4, 6-2.
Sunday’s success followed on the heels of a similar performance by the Blue Devils against Pittsburgh Friday.
The Blue Devils had lost the doubles point in both matches leading up to the duel with the Panthers but found their rhythm again in the Steel City. On court one, McCarthy and Harris defeated Ogungbesan and Amber Washington 6-3 on a three-game run. Hamlin and freshman Jessica Ho clinched the doubles point for Duke with a set win of the same score against Callie Frey and Carina Ma on court three.
The Panthers (7-4, 1-4) claimed a quick win on court six as Washington upended Makarova 6-1, 6-3 and tallied another point at the No. 2 position as Audrey Ann Blakely battled back from a one-set deficit to defeat McCarthy 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
But the Blue Devils put the match away with wins from Scholl, Hamlin, Ho and Harris. Harris proved to be Duke’s key player again, clinching the match against Ma 7-6, 6-1. The sophomore was slowed in the opening frame and was forced into her second tiebreak in as many matches after dropping a first-set tiebreak at Virginia Tech March 6. After claiming the first-set tiebreaker by a 7-3 margin this time around, she was back in control and quickly wrapped up the second set.
Hamlin snapped a two-match losing skid with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Frey, and Ho rallied from a loss in the first set to seal her match against Gabriela Rezende 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
The Blue Devils will wrap up their road tour with a duel against Wake Forest Saturday at noon before preparing for top-10 battles against No. 3 North Carolina and No. 10 Virginia the following weekend.
“We have to get back and have a really good week of practice,” Ashworth said. “We have a tough stretch of matches coming up. Wake Forest is probably the most improved team in the conference. We have UNC [and] Virginia right after that. We have a stretch here that’s really going to define our season.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.