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Report: Duke women's tennis to add graduate transfer Summer Dvorak

Summer Dvorak's addition will help Duke replace its strong senior class, which included Elyse Hamlin.
Summer Dvorak's addition will help Duke replace its strong senior class, which included Elyse Hamlin.

Fresh off a second straight trip to the Final Four, the Blue Devils will welcome a graduate transfer from Vanderbilt.

According to Parsa Nemati, a tennis insider from Cracked Racquets, Summer Dvorak will join Duke for her final year of eligibility.

During her time as a Commodore, Dvorak registered a career-high doubles ranking of No. 24 this past fall alongside Fernanda Contreras and a singles ranking of No. 96 in November 2017.

Dvorak is a former five-star recruit and No. 51 overall player in her class, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network. As a junior player, the Laguna Beach, Calif., native advanced to the final qualifying round of the Easter Bowl Championship back in 2015. In the same event, Dvorak made the Round of 16 on the doubles side.

In the fall of her freshman year, Dvorak went 8-6 in singles and 6-3 in doubles. She did see action in the spring dual match season. She then made her dual match debut May 12, 2017 against SIU-Edwardsville on the doubles side in her second season. Dvorak went 1-2 in the fall on the singles side and finished the season with a 4-2 doubles record.

Dvorak had her breakout season as a junior, as she earned second team All-SEC honors. After winning the 2017 Debbie Southern Fall Classic, she played mostly in the fifth and sixth singles positions in the spring. In April of that season, Dvorak completed the comeback against No. 10 Florida and clinched Vanderbilt’s second straight SEC regular season championship. The SEC win also rewarded her with her first conference player of the week honors.

Dvorak finished her junior season with a 29-6 singles record and a 14-8 doubles record.

"Summer reminded me of [former Vanderbilt All-American] Frances Altick in recruiting: Very consistent, very intense, a tenacious competitor," Vanderbilt head coach Geoff Macdonald said last month about Dvorak. "She was a rock at [position] 6 last year."

For her final season at Vanderbilt, Dvorak saw the court in the fourth, fifth and sixth singles positions. She went 0-1 at singles four, 4-0 at singles five and 3-4 at singles six this past spring.

Dvorak will provide depth in the back end of the roster, just like she did for the past two seasons at Vanderbilt. After Ellyse Hamlin and Kaitlyn McCarthy graduated last month, there will be a different look to the bottom half of the Spring 2020 lineup.

Maria Mateas has not officially decided if she will return to school in the fall or if she will turn pro. This week, the current WTA No. 328 is the second seed at the $25,000 tournament in Delaware.

After Mateas, rising junior Kelly Chen and rising senior Meible Chi will likely see their names at the top of the lineup card come the spring. After a successful spring season after only joining the team in January, rising sophomore Margaryta Bilokin will likely see her name in the middle of the lineup, up from the sixth position where she played towards the end of this season.

Along with Dvorak, Chloe Beck is expected to join the Blue Devils in the fall. After initially committing to join the team for the fall of 2020, the Watkinsville, Ga., native will finish high school a year early and join the team come August. The team has not officially announced Beck’s commitment.

According to her Universal Tennis Rating published on Slam.Tennis for today’s ITA Kickoff Draft, Dvorak would project to play after the aforementioned players and around the same position as rising junior Ema Lazic and rising sophomore Hannah Zhao. Dvorak’s UTR of 10.70 sits just ahead of Lazic’s 10.64.

If Mateas returns, Duke will have utilized all of its allotted eight scholarships. If she decides to begin her professional career, the Blue Devils will have one open roster spot that they can save for this fall or spring.

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