No. 4 Duke Pulls Out 4-3 Victory Over 14th-ranked Texas

Wednesday, April 7

Durham, N.C.

TBA

Duke University

Texas

No. 4 Duke Pulls Out 4-3 Victory Over 14th-ranked Texas

4/7/2004 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

April 7, 2004

DURHAM, N.C.- Led by senior Amanda Johnson's three-set victory in singles, fourth-ranked Duke pulled out a 4-3 win over 14th-ranked Texas on Wednesday evening at the Ambler Tennis Stadium. The victory for Duke improves the Blue Devils to 16-1 overall and is the 15th straight overall win, while Texas falls to 15-4.

"After we won the doubles point, we came out very flat in singles," said Duke Head Coach Jamie Ashworth. "We were not showing any life at all and I don't understand why we were like that. But once we started seeing the scores get better on the scoreboard, everyone got pumped up and we started playing better."

Duke jumped out to a 1-0 early lead as the Blue Devils took two of three doubles matches. The Blue Devil duo of Kristin Cargill and Jennifer Zika collected an 8-5 victory over Kelly Baritot and Ristine Olson at the third slot, while Johnson and Saras Arasu posted an 8-2 victory over Petra Dizdar and Mia Marovic at the second position. Texas pulled out an 8-4 victory at the top position as Katie Ruckert and Kendra Strohm knocked off Tory Zawacki and Julia Smith.

Texas came right back to even the match at 1-1, as Strohm posted a 6-2, 6-0 win over Duke's Smith at the fourth position. The loss by Smith broke an eight-match win streak for the Windlesham, England product. Then, the Longhorns went up 2-1 as Ruckert took down Zika, a freshman from Wels, Austria, by a 6-4, 6-4 ledger.

Duke was then able to even the match at 2-2 as Zawacki, a freshman from Union, N.J., posted a 7-6, 6-4 win over Marovic at the third slot. Zawacki battled the entire match as she trailed at times in each set to Marovic. Just a few minutes later, 110th-ranked Arasu gave Duke its second lead of the match at 3-2 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Baritot at the fifth position. The victory for Arasu was her 13th straight singles win.

In the featured singles match of the evening, ninth-ranked Johnson from Duke went up against 18th-ranked Dizdar of Texas. Dizdar went up 4-2 early in the first set but Johnson battled back to win 7-5. In the second set, Dizdar cruised to a 6-4 win, but the Blue Devils' three-time All-America dominated the final set, 6-1, to clinch the victory for Duke.

"Amanda is one of the best competitors we have ever had at Duke," said Ashworth. "She is always going to fight and there is just something about her that she knows she can win every match no matter if she is up or down."

Texas closed out the sixth position with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win by Olson over Cargill to close the match with a score of 4-3 in favor of Duke. A freshman from Atlanta, Ga., Cargill won the first set and was up 5-4 in the second set before Olson pulled out the victory. The loss for Cargill broke an 11-match win streak.

The Blue Devils won their 26th straight home match and have won 40 out of their last 41 contests in Durham. Duke will next host second-ranked Florida on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at the Ambler Tennis Stadium.

Doubles
1. Katie Ruckert/Kendra Strohm (UT) d. Tory Zawacki/Julia Smith (DU)  8-4
2. Amanda Johnson/Saras Arasu (DU) d. Petra Dizdar/Mia Marovic (UT)  8-2
3. Kristin Cargill/Jennifer Zika (DU) d. Kelly Baritot/Ristine Olson (UT)  8-5
Order of finish:  2, 3, 1

Singles
1. #9 Amanda Johnson (DU) d. #18 Petra Dizdar (UT) 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
2. Katie Ruckert (UT) d. #92 Jennifer Zika (DU)  6-4, 6-4
3. Tory Zawacki (DU) d. Mia Marovic (UT)  7-6, 6-4
4. Kendra Strohm (UT) d. Julia Smith (DU)  6-2, 6-0
5. #110 Saras Arasu (DU) d. Kelly Baritot (UT) 6-2, 6-4
6. Ristine Olson (UT)  d. Kristin Cargill (DU) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
Order of finish:  4, 2, 3, 5, 1, 6

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