No. 4 Duke Upends No. 54 Memphis

Sunday, January 25

Durham, N.C.

1:00 PM

Duke University

Memphis

No. 4 Duke Upends No. 54 Memphis

1/25/2015 7:15:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – The fourth-ranked Duke women's tennis team will have an opportunity to defend its 2014 ITA Division I National Women's Team Indoor Championship title. The Blue Devils earned a berth in the annual indoor tournament after defeating 54th-ranked Memphis, 4-0, Sunday afternoon in an ITA Kick-Off Championship Match held in Durham, N.C.

“[Returning to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships] is a great opportunity for us,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We have to get better though in the next week before we head up there. We have a tough match next Sunday against Northwestern. But to have the opportunity to go and play for another title is all we could have asked for of this weekend.”

Duke won a hard-fought doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead over the Tigers. Senior Annie Mulholland and redshirt senior Rachel Kahan led the Blue Devils off the court with a 6-2 win over Kathryn Hughes and Tara McElroy at the No. 3 position. Neither pair saw a significant advantage over the other in the early stages of the match, with the score knotted at 2-2, but after Mulholland and Kahan held serve, and then broke the serve of Hughes and McElroy, the Duke tandem maintained its momentum and won the final two games to take the match. With the victory, Mulholland and Kahan moved to 2-0 as a doubles pair this season.

Duke earned the doubles point after senior Ester Goldfeld and sophomore Alyssa Smith defeated the Memphis team of Marta Morga and Liza Tymchenko, 6-4, on court two. The two doubles tandems proved equally matched, with the score tied multiple times throughout the contest, including at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4. After holding serve to take a 5-4 advantage over Morga and Tymchenko, Goldfeld and Smith successfully closed out the match, breaking the serve of the Memphis pair. Goldfeld and Smith now own a 1-1 dual match doubles record following today's result.

“Yesterday after the match, we talked about getting better, every single match we played together, and today I think we were the ones being aggressive,” Golfeld said. “We were the ones controlling the points. We were the ones making the plays. I think we were a little too responsive to what our opponents were doing. I think being more aggressive today definitely helped.”

Duke's team of junior Beatrice Capra and freshman Samantha Harris lost its first dual match of the season, falling to Anki Wind and Alyssa Hibberd, 7-5, on court one. Capra and Harris held a 4-1 lead over Wind and Hibberd before surrendering four straight games. A break brought the match even again before Wind and Hibberd closed the contest by winning two straight games.

Duke proved too much for the Tigers in singles play, with the Blue Devils taking the first set on four of the six courts. On court four, 55th-ranked Harris defeated Hibberd, 6-1, 6-2. Harris opened her contest by winning four straight games before Hibberd held serve, bringing the score to 4-1. Harris would go on to win the next two matches, and the set. The second set played out similar to the first, with Harris taking a 4-0 lead before Hibberd won a game. Harris and Hibberd would trade games before Harris closed out the set and the match. Harris remains unbeaten in dual matches this season, owning a singles record of 2-0.

Similar to Harris, Mulholland remained in control of her singles contest on court six, upending Tara McElroy, 6-0, 6-2. After not dropping a game in the first set, Mulholland opened the second set down 0-1. The Portland, Ore., native rebounded however, winning three straight to take a 3-1 lead. After McElroy brought the second set to 3-2, Mulholland won three straight games to earn her second dual match singles win of the season.

On court two, 87th-ranked Goldfeld successfully clinched the victory for Duke by defeating Tymchenko, 6-3, 6-1. Goldfeld and Tymchenko sat tied at 2-2 in the first set before Goldfeld held and broke the serve of Tymchenko to take a 4-2 lead. Although Goldfeld's opponent would come within a game in the first set, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native successfully closed out the opening set by winning the final two games. In the second set, Goldfeld trailed at 0-1 before winning six consecutive games to close out the match. Goldfeld remains undefeated in dual match play this season.

Three of Duke's matches were abandoned after the Blue Devils clinched the contest. Capra led 9-8 over Wind in a first-set tiebreak on court one, while Kahan was just one game away from winning her match on court three, leading Morga, 6-1, 5-3. On court five, freshman Rebecca Smaller was heading to a third set after dropping the first set against Hughes, 1-6, and battling back to take the second set, 6-3.

Duke returns to competition next Sunday, welcoming 17th-ranked Northwestern to the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center in Durham, N.C. The match is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.

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