No. 14 Duke Falls to No. 1 Vanderbilt at ITAs

Friday, February 5

Madison, Wis.

4:30 PM

Duke University

Vanderbilt (First Round)

Day Two of Freeman Memorial Comes to a Close

No. 14 Duke Falls to No. 1 Vanderbilt at ITAs

2/5/2016 11:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score: Vanderbilt 4, Duke 0 ITA Main Draw ITA Consolation Matches

By: Duke Sports Information

MADISON, Wis. – The 14th-ranked Duke women's tennis team was unable to overcome an early deficit in its opening round contest of the ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championship, falling to top-ranked Vanderbilt, 4-0. With the loss, the Blue Devils drop to 4-1 on the season.

The Commodores jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage after picking up two victories on the doubles courts. The 26th-ranked Duke tandem of senior Beatrice Capra and freshman Ellyse Hamlin dropped just its fifth match of the season, falling to 11th-ranked Courtney Colton and Sydney Campbell, 6-1. Colton and Campbell took a 1-0 lead before Capra and Hamlin tied the contest at 1-1. The Duke team was unable to maintain its momentum however, as Colton and Campbell won the next five games to take the match.

The Blue Devils brought doubles even to 1-1 after the Duke pair of juniors Chalena Scholl and Alyssa Smith cruised on court three, downing Frances Altick and Georgina Sellyn, 6-1. The Duke and Vanderbilt duos each traded a game before Scholl and Smith won five straight games to earn their fifth doubles victory of the year.

The doubles point was decided on court two, in a match between Duke freshman Kaitlyn McCarthy and sophomore Samantha Harris and Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma and Ellie Yates. The two teams proved evenly matched, with neither gaining a significant advantage throughout the course of the contest. Harris and McCarthy took a 6-5 lead, but Sharma and Yates strung together back-to-back games to earn the victory and the doubles point.

For just the second time this season, the Blue Devils went into singles action trailing by a point. Duke was unable to rebound on the singles courts however, as the Commodores took matches in straight sets on courts one, two and four to secure the victory and advance to the second round of the tournament.

McCarthy, the 29th-ranked singles player in the country, dropped to 17-3 on the season after falling to 15th-ranked Sharma, 6-4, 6-2. In the first set, Sharma and McCarthy remained just a game apart, with the score reading 4-3, before Sharma won two of the next three games to secure the first set. In the second set, McCarthy trailed, 3-1, and was unable to make up the deficit, as Sharma concluded the match by winning three of the final four games.

On court one, No. 28 Capra suffered just her second loss of the season after dropping her match against No. 24 Campbell, 6-3, 6-1. Campbell jumped out to a 4-0 lead that proved insurmountable for Capra to overcome. In the second set, Capra and Campbell remained tied at 1-1 before Campbell took five straight games to earn the victory and pull Vanderbilt within a point of the win.

The match was ultimately decided on court four, where Colton downed Harris, 6-4, 6-4. Harris fell behind 2-0 in the first set before winning two straight games to tie the set. Colton once again pulled away from Harris however, and took a close first set. Harris led in the second set, 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3, before Colton claimed three straight games to close out the contest and hand Harris her fourth defeat of the year.

With the contest decided, matches on courts three, five and six remained unfinished. On court three, No. 79 Scholl led No. 33 Altick, 6-3, 5-3, while on court five, No. 70 Hamlin trailed Sellyn, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0. The match between freshman Jessica Ho and Yates was suspended, with Ho trailing, 6-4, 4-4.

The Blue Devils return to competition tomorrow, facing No. 30 Fresno State at 7:30 (ET), in a consolation round contest.

#GoDuke