Sportswrap is your one-stop shop for everything Duke athletics, where we’ll recap how each of Duke’s sports currently in competition performed over the last week and give a brief look ahead. Here’s our recap for the week of Feb. 6-12.
Men's basketball
Up in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday evening, Duke found itself at the center of the college basketball world when a foul call that would have sent star freshman Kyle Filipowski to the line inside the final second of a tie game was overturned. The fallout of the officiating decision was a 69-62 overtime loss at No. 8 Virginia, a great deal of postgame confusion for head coach Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils (17-8, 8-6 in the ACC) and—later Saturday night—a statement from the ACC admitting the error that may have cost Duke a quality win.
Add Saturday's defeat to Monday's uncompetitive 81-59 loss at No. 19 Miami, and the Blue Devils are staring at back-to-back losses for the first time this season. It's a far cry from where this team stood a week ago after its thrilling win against North Carolina, adding importance to Duke's Tuesday matchup against Notre Dame at Cameron Indoor Stadium and its Saturday tilt at Syracuse. -Jonathan Levitan
Women's basketball
It was another two-win week for the ninth-ranked Blue Devils, who opened with a 68-27 victory Thursday at Boston College before coming home Sunday to beat Miami 50-40 in Cameron Indoor. The big theme for Duke (22-3, 12-2) this week was defense. The Blue Devils held the Eagles to just 28 points, the second-fewest points ever allowed in an ACC game. They followed that up by holding an explosive Miami team to just 13 points in the first half. This coming week, it will be a big-time ranked matchup Thursday against No. 11 Virginia Tech, then a Saturday game at Virginia. -Martin Heintzelman
Women's tennis
The fourth-ranked Blue Devils traveled to Seattle this week to compete in ITA National Team Indoors in hopes of continuing their momentum on the road. On Friday, Duke (10-1) fell to No. 15 Oklahoma 4-2 in its biggest challenge of the season to date. Duke rebounded Saturday with a 4-3 win against No. 6 Stanford in the consolation bracket, with sophomore Ellie Coleman securing the win for her team after dropping the first set to Valencia Xu. Collecting her 100th singles win, Cameron Morra closed out the tournament by giving the Blue Devils a 4-1 win against Washington. Duke now heads into a break before beginning conference play Feb. 24 at Virginia Tech. -Anna Newberry
Men's tennis
On Friday, the Blue Devils welcomed East Tennessee State and had a great performance, defeating the Buccaneers 7-0. Freshman Teddy Truwit entered his first competition, playing doubles with sophomore Connor Krug and winning 6-2. Duke (6-4) continues to face tough nonconference competition, as it traveled to No. 2 Kentucky Sunday. Although the Blue Devils earned the doubles point, the singles lineup for Kentucky proved to be too strong for Duke. The Wildcats emerged victorious 4-3, as Duke’s top four singles players—seniors Garrett Johns and Andrew Zhang, freshman Pedro Rodenas and sophomore Krug—all were defeated. The Blue Devils will return home to face Boston College Feb. 24. -Ranjan Jindal
Women’s lacrosse
Duke started its season with a win, defeating Navy 15-10 in Koskinen Stadium Friday. The 11th-ranked Blue Devils (1-0) had a strong offensive showing as eight different players scored and both junior Katie DeSimone and graduate Maddie Jenner notched hat tricks. Graduate attacker Anna Callahan led the team in points as she added three assists to her two-goal tally. Jenner continued her draw-control dominance, winning 13. She now sits just 29 draws behind the NCAA all-time career record. Duke will travel to Davidson Wednesday for its first road matchup of the season. -Rachael Kaplan
Men's lacrosse
No. 7 Duke took down High Point 20-8 Tuesday at Koskinen Stadium behind senior attacker Dyson Williams’ seven goals. The Panthers put up a fight in every stat but scoring, and by the end of the game, it was clear that the Blue Devils (2-1) were the better offensive team. On Saturday, the Blue Devils played No. 17 Jacksonville at Rock Stadium for a chance at avenging their loss to the Dolphins from last year. Despite a strong first half and a big scoring day from O’Neill with five goals, visiting Duke ultimately fell 13-12. -Ana Young
Softball
The Blue Devils fell to No. 17 Washington and No. 1 Oklahoma on their opening day but took the last three games of the Mark Campbell Invitational out in Irvine, Calif. Solid pitching from Jala Wright, Claire Davidson and freshman Cassidy Curd kept No. 15 Duke (3-2) in both games Thursday, but the offense couldn’t go the distance, stranding twelve. The Blue Devil bats rallied the rest of the weekend, outscoring San Jose State, Liberty and No. 20 Stanford 23-9 with seven runs from shortstop Deja Davis. On Thursday, the Blue Devils head to Florida for the ESPN Clearwater Invitational, where four more ranked opponents await them. -Molly Honecker
Track and field
Duke spent the weekend continuing to break school records at the Tiger Paw Invitational and Music City Challenge. Blue Devils across both the men’s and women’s squads posted top results, including a school record by Halle Bieber in the 200m dash. Other standouts included Chinenye Agina in the high jump, Beck Wittstadt in the 800m and the quartet of Julia Jackson, Lauren Tolbert, Megan McGinnis and Bieber in the 4x400m, all of whom posted top-five marks in school history. The team will continue its leadup to the ACC and NCAA Indoor Championships in the Virginia Tech Challenge and the JDL DMR Invitational across Friday and Saturday. -Dom Fenoglio
Fencing
The Blue Devils brought it home Saturday and Sunday at the Duke Meet. The No. 9 Duke men kicked off the competition with wins against Brandeis, Johns Hopkins and MIT before falling to No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 7 Penn State. The 12th-ranked women’s team slammed the door shut Sunday, defeating No. 1 Notre Dame 16-11 and going undefeated on the day. With their eyes on the prize, the Blue Devils head to the ACC Championship in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Feb. 25. -Audrey Wang
Wrestling
Duke suffered another sound defeat in ACC competition, this time losing on the road to Virginia 45-3. The Blue Devils suffered nine losses, including five falls, two major decisions, one decision loss and one forfeit. On a positive note, senior captain Jonah Niesenbaum returned to the mat after a knee injury kept him sidelined against Virginia Tech. The 285-pound grappler, ranked 22nd in the nation, won his match against Ethan Weatherspoon in a comfortable 7-1 fashion. The Blue Devils will look to improve their record Wednesday on Senior Night against Gardner-Webb. -Luke Jovanovic
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