Duke Defeats Arizona State 4-2 To Advance In NCAA Tournament

Saturday, May 10

Chapel Hill, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Duke University

Arizona State

Duke Defeats Arizona State 4-2 To Advance In NCAA Tournament

5/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? The No. 43 Duke men's tennis team rallied from behind on Saturday to claim a 4-2 victory over No. 23 Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Blue Devils won their first round NCAA Tournament game for the 17th straight season under head coach Jay Lapidus. They will move on to the second round where they will face No. 12 North Carolina on Sunday.

“Alex Stone showed a lot of heart being down match point in that second set, coming back to fight his way through that set,” said Lapidus. “It was one of the few matches this year where I felt things went our way. We have had a lot of bad breaks this year but today things fell in place for us for whatever reason.”

Stone, a senior from Bronx, N.Y., clinched Saturday's match for the Blue Devils with a win at the No. 5 position. He lost the first set 6-4 and faced match point twice in the second set before fighting his way to a 7-6 tiebreaker win to force a third set. His opponent, Wes Miller, broke his serve to start the final set but Stone battled back to eventually win the set, 6-3, and send Duke to the next round. It was the second time this season Stone earned a win to clinch a match. He also earned the fourth point in a 5-2 win at Miami earlier this season.

“Everyone came out with as much energy as they could in singles,” said Stone. “I was nervous in my first couple of games because I haven't played a singles match in about a month. Once I got those jitters out, I found my game and played how I needed to play. I served great and returned really well. I had a couple of match points in the second set but there was no way I was going to lose. I didn't want my career to end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.”

Duke trailed 1-0 after losing the doubles point to Arizona State. The score would soon be tied at 1-1 as No. 78 Reid Carleton earned a 7-5, 6-0 victory in the No. 2 slot over No. 69 Andres Arango. Carleton now has five victories over ranked opponents this season and takes his team-best singles record to 26-9.

After Arizona State's No. 74 Matt Brooklyn finished off a straight-set win over No. 55 David Goulet, the Blue Devils' Dylan Arnould again evened the score with a 7-5, 6-4 win against Harry Skinner at the No. 4 spot in the lineup. Arnould improved to 18-14 on the season with the victory. At the No. 6 position, freshman Alain Michel gave Duke its first lead of the match. He defeated T.J. Bellama 7-5, 6-3 to pick up his 10th win of the year.

With the win the Blue Devils improve to 11-13 overall while the Sun Devils fall to 15-5 on the year. Duke's second round match against North Carolina is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. It will be the first time the two in-state rivals have met in the NCAA Tournament.