Duke Upends Louisville to Stay Perfect in ACC Play

Sunday, March 1

Durham, N.C.

11:00 AM

Duke University

Louisville

No. 4 Duke Set to Face No. 22 Northwestern

Duke Upends Louisville to Stay Perfect in ACC Play

3/1/2015 3:20:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke women's tennis team moved to 2-0 in conference play this season after defeating visiting Louisville, 4-0, in Durham, N.C., Sunday. The Blue Devils (6-5, 2-0) have opened ACC competition with back-to-back wins for the fifth time in six season.

“We learned a lot from the last time we played Louisville,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “They're a team that will give you a lot of free points. We knew that from before, but they're also going to hit some winners. For us, we just had to worry about ourselves and not get frustrated. It was another good conference win for us. We have to keep building and getting wins. The conference is so hard that when you have an opportunity to win matches, you have to take advantage of them.”

For the second straight match, the Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead after wins on courts two and three secured the doubles point for Duke.

The tandem of junior Beatrice Capra and senior Rachel Kahan led the Blue Devils off the doubles courts with an 8-3 victory over Louisville's Manuela Velasquez and Jessie Lynn Paul. Capra and Kahan never trailed in the contest, as the Duke team took a 2-0 lead early in the match. After Velasquez and Paul brought the match even at 2-2, Capra and Kahan won five straight to see a 7-2 advantage that was insurmountable for their Louisville opposition. With the victory, Capra and Kahan moved to 3-3 on the season as a doubles pair.

“I played with Rachel my freshman year, so it's good to be playing with her again,” Capra said. “The more we play, the more I know where she's going on the court and she knows where I am. The communication is a lot better. I think we can just use the confidence from winning these past few matches and hopefully keep the momentum going.”

The Blue Devils would clinch the doubles point after the duo of senior Annie Mulholland and freshman Samantha Harris earned an 8-3 win over Louisville's Ellie Gerlach and Ariana Rodriguez on court three. Mulholland and Harris dominated the match from the outset, winning six straight games to build a lead that Gerlach and Rodriguez were unable to overcome. The team of Mulholland and Harris now owns an overall doubles record of 9-2, and a dual match mark of 6-1.

“They're a good combination because Sam can penetrate with her groundstrokes, especially off her serve return, and Annie can finish at the net, so Annie gets a lot of opportunities off of Sam's ball,” Ashworth said. “When they do that, they're tough to beat, because they make you come up with shots to beat them. For them, it's just keeping the momentum going and not relaxing. They've been good for us and it's all really simple.”

The match on court one between the tandem of senior Ester Goldfeld and sophomore Alyssa Smith and the Louisville pair of Chloe Willetts and Olivia Boesing remained unfinished, with the Blue Devils trailing, 6-7.

Duke played some of its best singles matches of the season Sunday, taking the first set on five of the six courts before winning three matches to secure the victory for the Blue Devils.

Harris' dominant performance in doubles carried over to the singles courts, as she defeated Louisville's Cassie Pough, 6-1, 6-3. Harris, the 87th-ranked singles player in the country, took a 5-0 lead in the first set before dropping her lone game to Pough. In the second set, Harris trailed 2-3, before the Melbourne, Australia native won four consecutive games to win the set and the match. Harris now sits at 5-2 in dual matches this year, and 13-4 overall.

After being forced to retire in her contest with Virginia Tech's Francesca Fusinato on Friday, the 51st-ranked Goldfeld rebounded nicely, upending Louisville's Rodriguez on court two, 6-2, 6-2. After the two competitors sat tied at 2-2, Goldfeld put together a four-game run that secured the first-set victory. In the second set, Goldfeld saw a 5-0 advantage that allowed her to remain in control throughout the remainder of the contest. Fusinato won two games to pull within three of Goldfeld, before the Brooklyn, N.Y., native closed out the set and the match to earn her team-leading 16th win of the year.

Capra secured the win for Duke, earning her second victory of the weekend in the process, with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Paul on court one. Capra never trailed in either set en route to her fourth dual match win of the year.

“[The win] gives us some confidence moving forward,” Capra said. “We had a tough five matches leading up to this, but we were all really determined to start a clean slate moving forward and we've been working really hard. I think we're going to move forward from this win and hopefully have a good rest of the season.”

With the match clinched, competition on courts four, five and six was abandoned. On court four, 86th-ranked Kahan led Velasquez, 7-5, 3-0, while on court six, Mulholland owned a 6-3, 3-2 lead over Willetts. Smaller trailed Boesing, 5-7, 1-3, on court five.

Duke resumes competition next Friday, traveling to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to face Boston College, with the match scheduled for a 5 p.m. start.

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