The fall season came to an end this weekend, but not without a couple of ranked victories.
The Blue Devils sent two players to compete in the culminating event in Surprise, Ariz. At the ITA fall national championships, junior Meible Chi and sophomore Kelly Chen entered as two of the top seven seeds, but neither made it out of the Round of 16.
“This weekend was a microcosm of different parts that we have to work on as a team,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth told GoDuke. “I thought Kelly and Meible both played well at times and gave them opportunities to win the two matches they lost. If you look at these couple matches, it goes with how our fall has been.”
For the second time this season, No. 31 Chi saw a first-round matchup with Florida State’s No. 11 Carla Touly. Back at the ITA All-American championships in early October, the Duke junior won 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the Round of 16, where she eventually lost.
Although the score was different, the result was the same. The Weston, Fla., native needed two more games to earn the 6-3, 6-3 victory against the Seminoles’ top-ranked player. Chi, who secured an at-large bid into the main draw, entered the meeting as the tournament’s seventh seed.
The second round provided Chi an encounter with Wisconsin’s Sara Castellano, who took freshman Maria Mateas to three sets in her debut and only college event of the fall.
Chi defeated the Badger 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the final 16, where she lost in straight sets to North Carolina’s No. 2 Makenna Jones 5-7, 2-6.
The junior finished the fall slate with a team-high 11 victories to accompany three defeats.
Chen secured the fifth seed in the tournament.
In the first round, No. 12 Chen was on the brink of losing the opening set in a tiebreak, but she eventually took the tiebreaker 10-8 from Stanford’s Caroline Lampl, the Cardinal’s third-singles player from a year ago.
Once the Duke sophomore won the set, she took control of the rest of the match, as she took the second set 6-1.
But her fall came to an abrupt end in the Round of 32, when Chen lost to Vanderbilt No. 30 Christina Rosca in a close final set. The Blue Devil won the first set 6-4, but Rosca responded with a 6-3 win. In the final frame, the Commodore inched past her Duke opponent 6-4.
“We’ve put ourselves in good opportunities and have given ourselves chances to win matches and we haven’t capitalized on some,” Ashworth said. “Over the next couple weeks and heading into the spring, we have to figure out a way to become mentally tougher.”
Chen finished her second fall slate with a 6-2 record, second to only Chi.
The next installment of the ITA rankings will be published Nov. 14 when Mateas will make her debut on the national singles slate. Chen and Chi will be ranked not too far behind the freshman as a result of their successful fall.
“One of the biggest things we have to do over the next eight weeks is concentrate on our doubles,” Ashworth said. “We haven’t had the fortune of having Maria in many college events to work different doubles combinations with her. When we start the season in January against Oklahoma State, we have to make sure we’re ready to play good doubles.”
Duke will have time to work on all aspects before its trip in early January to some nice weather. Ashworth’s team will open the spring dual-match schedule against the Cowgirls Jan. 12 in the Bahamas.
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