Duke Takes Down Yale, 7-0

Saturday, January 30

Durham, N.C.

2:00 p.m.

Duke University

Yale

Sixth-ranked Duke Travels to No. 9 Florida Sunday

1/30/2010 5:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. - In the first round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, Duke earned a convincing 7-0 win over Yale this afternoon at the Sheffield Tennis Center.

"That is the best team we have played so far," Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "It is good to have a little bit of adversity in some matches, because we really haven't had that this year."

Duke got to a quick start In No. 1 doubles, as the Duke tandem of Ellah Nze and Amanda Granson took down the 41^st-ranked Yale team of Vicky Brook and Lindsay Clark, 8-2. Yale pulled within two games at 4-2, but the Blue Devils ran off four straight games to win the first doubles match of the afternoon in 39 minutes.

"The one doubles played really well," Ashworth said. "It was the best that I have seen them move all year. We have worked a lot in the last two weeks on their movement and not playing patterns or getting into the same routine. Those two, Ellah [Nze] and Amanda [Granson] played really well."

The most competitive play was at No. 2 doubles, where a back-and-forth match between Duke and Yale ended with an exciting 8-6 win for the Blue Devils. Elizabeth Plotkin and Reka Zsilinszka battled back from a 5-4 deficit, tying Stevi Petrelli and Elizabeth Epstein at 6-6 before taking the last two games.

Blue Devils Jessica Stiles and Monica Gorny took down Yale, 8-5, at No. 3 doubles. Duke was up 5-4 before closing out the match against the Silia DeFilippis and Sarah Lederhandler in one hour and five minutes.

Nze, recently tabbed 91^st in the ITA Tennis rankings, took the first singles match 6-1, 6-0 over Yale's Petrelli. Nze made quick work of her opponent, and got Duke on the board first from the No. 4 singles match.

"[Head coach Jamie Ashworth] empathized getting out to a good start," Nze said. "When we played doubles, we realized [Yale] had a lot of energy. It seemed like they were very dangerous and they were obviously looking to upset us. It was important to get on them early so they didn't have a chance."

Duke's Zslilinszka cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win against Stephanie Kent of Yale in No. 1 singles play. Zslilinszka, currently ranked 20^th, soundly beat No. 87 Kent in a little over one hour.

At No. 5 singles, Gorny earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory against 122^nd-ranked Epstein of Yale.

In No. 6 singles, Mary Clayton went up 6-0 in the first set. In the second set, Yale's Clark tied the match at 6-6, but Clayton won the tiebreaker 7-5 to put Duke ahead in the overall match, 5-0.

Duke's Plotkin and Yale's Brook battled throughout their No. 2 singles match, but Plotkin prevailed, winning a tiebreaker 1-0 after splitting sets with Brook. Plotkin won the first set, 6-1, but Brook took the second set, 6-4. The Duke senior from San Francisco, Calif. won the shortened match in a 1-0 tiebreaker due to Duke's 5-0 lead against Yale overall.

Granson finished the sweep of Yale with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Jessica Rhee in No. 3 singles. Granson, ranked 80^th nationally, finished singles play for Duke in the longest match of the day, ending after almost two hours of play.

Duke will face VCU tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Sheffield Tennis Center in the finals of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Wake Forest and Yale will play in the consolation finals at 10 a.m. in Sheffield Tennis Center.

-d-u-k-e-