Gorny and Mar to Play for Doubles Title in Fab Four Invite

Friday, September 17

Cary, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Duke Invitational

Gorny and Mar to Play for Doubles Title in Fab Four Invite

9/17/2010 8:45:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. – The Duke women's tennis team held the first round of singles and the first and second rounds of doubles in the Duke Fab Four Invite on Friday at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C.

The Blue Devils began the first round of singles Friday afternoon with wins in seven of their eight matches. The A bracket featured three Duke women with the No. 2 seed Nadine Fahoum picking up the win in straight sets over Trgovich of Wisconsin 6-2, 6-0, while teammate Mary Clayton also picked up the win in straight sets over Nida Hamilton of Northwestern 6-1, 6-1. Monica Gorny faced off against ACC rival Zoe De Bruycker of North Carolina and fell in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 for Duke's only loss in singles.

In bracket B, Elizabeth Plotkin defeated Brett Ellen Keeler of Princeton in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 while fellow senior and No. 2 seed Reka Zsilinszka tallied another win for the Blue Devils 6-0, 1-6, 6-3 over Alabama's Mary Anne Macfarlane.

Duke closed out the singles competition with three more wins in the C bracket, two of which came from freshmen Rachel Kahan and Hanna Mar. Kahan picked up her first singles win in a Blue Devil uniform in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 over Jenny Hois from Wisconsin and Mar grabbed her first singles win over ACC rival and No. 4 seed Jelena Durisic from UNC in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Ellah Nze rounded out the day for the Blue Devils, snatching a straight sets win 6-2, 6-3 over Abby Guthrie from Ole Miss.

The Blue Devils started the day off with the quarterfinal doubles competition at 10 a.m. with the pair of Kahan and Zsilinszka defeating Breanne Smutko and Chelcie Abajian of Illinois 8-6. The second match for Duke featured Gorny and Mar overpowering Anna Dushkina and Bhavani Tirumurti 8-0 for Mar to pick up her first win as a Blue Devil.

The B bracket featured the Duke duo of new transfer Fahoum alongside Plotkin. Fahoum and Plotkin lost to the Purdue pair of Mara Schmidt and Jennifer Rabot by a score of 8-5. The final quarterfinal match showcased Duke's Clayton and Nze who fell to Alaina Trgovich and Hannah Berner of Wisconsin 9-7 for the second loss in the quarterfinals.

The doubles semifinals were immediately after the quarterfinal round. Duke had two teams of doubles that squared off in the semifinals with the other two playing in the semifinal consolation match. Gorny and Mar picked up their second win and a berth to the doubles finals in the A bracket, defeating Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable of Princeton in an 8-1 route.

Duke had two teams of doubles playing semifinal consolation matches in the B and C brackets. Fahoum and Plotkin fell in their consolation match to Krista Damico and Aeriel Ellis of Texas by a score of 8-6 while Clayton and Nze were knocked out of the doubles competition by Maira Mosolova and Nida Hamilton from Northwestern by a final score of 8-6.

The Blue Devils will return to action Saturday morning for the doubles finals with Duke pair Gorny and Mar playing for the doubles crown in bracket A against the No. 44 ranked doubles duo of Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale from UNC at 9 a.m.

The Blue Devils will play the second and third rounds of singles Saturday beginning at 11:30 a.m. and the women's singles finals will be on Sunday at 9 a.m.

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