No. 4 Duke Falls, 6-1, To Second Ranked Florida In Women's Tennis

Thursday, April 8

Durham, N.C.

TBA

Duke University

Florida

No. 4 Duke Falls, 6-1, To Second Ranked Florida In Women's Tennis

4/8/2004 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

April 8, 2004

DURHAM, N.C.- In a very tight match on Thursday evening at Ambler Tennis Stadium, the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils lost a 6-1 contest against second-ranked Florida. The final score was not indicative of how close each match was as Duke falls to 16-2 and Florida improves to 18-0 on the season.

Florida kicked off the match by taking all three doubles contests and went ahead 1-0. Duke's No. 3 tandem of Kristin Cargill and Jennifer Zika won the first set, but then was shut down by Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak as the Gators won the next eight points to win 8-1.

At the second position, Florida's duo of 20th-ranked Zerene Reyes and Jennifer Magley was able to cruise to an 8-4 victory over Amanda Johnson and Saras Arasu. In the No. 1 slot, the Gators tandem of eight-ranked Alexis Gordon and Julie Rotondi jumped out to an early 6-3 advantage, but Duke's Tory Zawacki and Julia Smith battled back to go up 7-6 late. Florida was too tough as the Gators came back to win a 7-5 tiebreaker and won the match, 9-8.

As singles play began, Duke's ninth-ranked Johnson set the tone early for the Blue Devils as she won the first set, 6-3, over Gordon, the nation's No. 1 ranked player. After trailing 2-1 in the second set, Johnson came back to win five straight points to register her first collegiate victory against a top-ranked player. A Bettendorf, Iowa product, Johnson improved to 20-10 in singles play, while Gordon suffered only her second dual match loss of the year (15-2).

"It is a good win for me and I am glad I played well, but in the end it is about the team," said Johnson. "I have beaten Alexis before so I really wasn't thinking about her being ranked No. 1. I was thinking about how I have played her in the past and beaten her. If I did that the results would take care of themselves."

Prior to the victory over Gordon on Thursday, the highest ranked player Johnson had ever knocked off was seventh-ranked Daria Panova of Oregon (6-1, 6-1) in October of 2003. The last Duke player to knock off a No. 1 ranked player was Kelly McCain as she defeated Wake Forest's Bea Bielik on April 11, 2002 (7-6, 2-1 retired).

Florida's 24th-ranked Magley and 99th-ranked Berecz responded by winning in straight sets to give the Gators a 3-1 lead. Magley knocked off 92nd-ranked Zika at the second slot, 6-3, 7-5 and Berecz defeated Smith, 6-4, 7-5, at the fourth position.

The Gators were able to clinch the match 30 minutes later as Lindsay Dawaf won a 6-4, 7-6 contest over 110th-ranked Arasu at the fifth slot. The loss for Arasu broke a 13-match singles win streak. After winning the first set 6-3 and leading 3-2 in the second set, Duke's Cargill ended up falling to Suvak, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 at the sixth position to give Florida at 5-1 lead.

At the third position, Florida's 45th-ranked Reyes closed out the match with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Zawacki.

The loss for Duke breaks its 26-match home winning streak and 16-match overall win streak since falling to Vanderbilt in January. Florida increased it is series lead against the Blue Devils to 27-3 and maintains the nation's longest winning streak at 35.

"We played that match with the mindset we could win and they should win instead of we should win and they could win," said Duke Head Coach Jamie Ashworth. "If you look at the scores that is how it was with 7-5 and 6-4 on almost every court and we lost two three-setters."

Duke will next host 39th-ranked Georgia Tech on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and then will conclude the regular season against Clemson on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Sunday will mark senior day for Johnson.

Florida 6, Duke 1

Doubles
#8 Alexis Gordon/Julie Rotondi (UF) d. Tory  Zawacki/Julia Smith (DU)  9-8
#20 Zerene Reyes/Jennifer Magley (UF) d. Amanda Johnson/Saras Arasu (DU)  8-4
Boglarka Berecz/Nina Suvak (UF) d. Kristin Cargill/Jennifer Zika (DU)  8-1


Singles
1. #9 Amanda Johnson (DU) d. #1 Alexis Gordon (UF) 6-3, 6-2
2. #24 Jennifer Magley (UF) d. #92 Jennifer Zika (DU) 6-3, 7-5
3. #45 Zerene Reyes (UF) d. Tory Zawacki (DU)  5-7, 6-4, 6-3
4. #99 Boglarka Berecz (UF) d. Julia Smith (DU)  6-4, 7-5
5. Lindsay Dawaf (UF) d. #110 Saras Arasu (DU)  6-4, 7-6
6. Nina Suvak (UF) d. Kristin Cargill (DU) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3