Tag Archives: Duke Women’s Tennis

Weekend recap: Duke in the NCAA Tournament

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Five Duke teams opened NCAA Tournament play this weekend, and all five survived the weekend with some dramatic wins. Here’s a look at how the Blue Devils have fare thus far in postseason action:

Freshman Case Matheis scored three goals to lead Duke past Loyola in a double-overtime thriller. (Eric Lin/The Chronicle)

Case Matheis scored three goals to lead Duke past Loyola in double-overtime. (Eric Lin/The Chronicle)

Men’s lacrosse: Freshman Case Matheis scored the game-tying and game-winning goals for the Blue Devils as seventh-seeded Duke defeated Loyola 12-11 in double-overtime Sunday at Koskinen Stadium. The Blue Devils advance to their seventh straight appearance in the NCAA quarterfinal, where they will face No. 2 seed Notre Dame Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Women’s lacrosse: The Blue Devils got some sudden-death magic of their own this weekend. Duke battled Princeton in double-overtime without leading scorer Makenzie Hommel. Freshman Maddy Acton played the role of unlikely hero for the Blue Devils, scoring to give Duke a 10-9 victory in Annapolis, Md. Advancing to the second round, Duke took on eighth-seeded Navy and held Jasmine DePompeo—the leading scorer in the country—to no goals and one assists on seven shots, defeating the Midshipmen 10-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. The Blue Devils will take on top-seeded Maryland in College Park, Md. Saturday at noon.

Henrique Cunha remained perfect on the season in singles play as the Blue Devils won two NCAA Tournament matches. (Eric Lin/The Chronicle)

Henrique Cunha remained perfect on the season in singles play as the Blue Devils won two NCAA Tournament matches. (Eric Lin/The Chronicle)

Men’s tennis: Ninth-seeded Duke cruised through its first two NCAA Tournament matches, sweeping Coastal Carolina 4-0 Friday and following that up with a 4-0 dismantling of UNC-Wilmington in the Blue Devils’ second-round match Saturday at Ambler Tennis Stadium. Senior Henrique Cunha continued his winning ways, improving to 18-0 on the season in dual singles matches. Duke advances to the Round of 16, where it will square off with No. 8 seed Kentucky Thursday at 8 p.m. in Urbana, Ill.

Women’s tennis: Despite competing with just five players and being forced to forfeit a singles match and a doubles match, Duke found a way to survive and advance with two weekend wins in Lubbock, Texas. Strong doubles play helped the Blue Devils to defeat Ole Miss 4-1 in their first round match Saturday, but Duke ran into some trouble in the second round against 16th-seeded Texas Tech. The Blue Devils rallied from a 3-2 deficit to take a 4-3 victory Sunday against the Red Raiders and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 16. Duke will face top-seeded Florida in Urbana, Ill. Friday at 10 a.m.

Women’s golf: The Blue Devils dug themselves out of a six-stroke hole on the final day of competition to take the NCAA Central Regional championship in Norman, Okla. Duke shot a 12-under-par as a team on the final round to surge past its host, fourth-ranked Oklahoma, to take the championship by six shots. Senior Courtney Ellenbogen shot the best round of her career Saturday with a five-under 67 in the final round. Alejandra Cangrejo turned in the best three-hole performance of her career, finishing at a five-under-par 211 and tying for second place individually. The Blue Devils advance to the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga. next week, where they will take on top programs Alabama and Southern Cal.

Check out all of The Chronicle’s NCAA Tournament coverage at www.dukechronicle.com.

Women’s Tennis Begins ITA Carolina Regionals

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The Blue Devils begin play at the ITA Carolina Regional Championships today and will continue to compete through Monday Oct. 25. The five-day tournament will take place at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill on the campus of North Carolina. Winners of the singles and doubles titles qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships held Nov. 4-7 in Flushing, N.Y.

Six Blue Devils will compete as singles players: seniors Ellah Nze, Elizabeth Plotkin and Nadine Fahoum; junior Monica Gorny; sophomore Mary Clayton; and freshman Hanna Mar. Senior Reka Zsilinszka will not participate in the singles draw, as she already qualified for the Indoor Championships based on her performance at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships.

Duke will feature three doubles squads in the tournament as well. The team of Fahoum and Nze earned the second overall seed, Clayton and Gorny received the fourth seed, and Zsilinszka and Mar were chosen as the fifth seed. Mar is playing in her first tournament since winning the singles title at the San Diego State Fall Classic Oct. 3—her first collegiate victory.

All three doubles teams begin play this afternoon. The singles main draw has yet to be finalized but is scheduled to begin Friday. The championship matches in singles and doubles will be held Monday.

Duke Makes Short Work of Long Island, Virginia

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Senior Amanda Granson joined the rest of her team in easily dismantling Virginia and Long Island this weekend.

The Blue Devils began their national champion defense in dominant fashion this past weekend, bouncing back from last month’s disappointing early exit in the ACC Tournament.

No. 10 Duke defeated Long Island 4-0 and knocked off Virginia 4-1 in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament, respectively, in Charlottesville, Va.

The Blue Devils needed to regroup after falling to Florida State in the first round of the conference tournament back on April 23. Duke had blanked the Seminoles 4-0 just one week before in the regular season but dropped four straight singles matches the second time around, losing 4-2 and failing to capture a second straight ACC championship.

A layoff of three weeks allowed the Blue Devils to put that defeat behind them and enter the NCAA tournament with a renewed focus.

“We stumbled in the first round of ACC’s and had to figure out what went wrong,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We talked about having to be competitive against each other in practice everyday. We had to put ourselves in match situations. [The players] had to go at each other and use their teammates to get their sharpness back.”

These high-intensity practices paid off in the first round of the tournament last Friday, as Duke shut out Long Island and dropped only one game during the entire match. After the Blue Devils quickly picked up the doubles point, seniors Amanda Granson and Elizabeth Plotkin beat their opponents in unblemished straight sets at No. 4 and No. 2 singles, respectively. Sophomore Monica Gorny was next off the court, giving Duke the win by picking up a 6-0, 6-1 victory at the No. 5 singles position.

Virginia provided tougher competition for the Blue Devils Saturday, but the Cavaliers could not avenge the 5-2 loss that Duke dealt them in the regular season.

More to come later in the week, as the Blue Devils prepare to face No. 7 UCLA Thursday at noon.

Cecil Turns Pro

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After winning it all in her freshman season, Mallory Cecil decided to forgo the final three years of her Duke career and enter the professional ranks.

Cecil, who played for one semester at Duke, finished her Blue Devil career with a 32-4 record.

“It was a really tough decision,” Cecil said. “There were so many things drawing me back to Duke, but at the same time I feel like it’s my time. The [age] frame for women’s tennis is so young so I thought this is my opportunity to pursue my career. I had a great semester at Duke, a great team and so many great memories. It was a really tough decision, but I am excited to start this new journey.”

Cecil entered Duke in the 2009 spring semester and assumed the No. 1 singles spot for the Blue Devils. She led Duke to its first ever national title in women’s tennis and won the NCAA individual title as well, becoming the 14th player in history to win both crowns in the same season.

She was also the recipient of the Honda Award, honoring the nation’s top female collegiate athlete in each sport. That accolade came along with being named the ACC Rookie of the Year, as well as the ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year.

Cecil will begin her professional career at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. next week.

Nze Lifts Duke Into NCAA Championship Match

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It was a race to the finish–for sophomores Ellah Nze and Reka Zsilinszka, that is.

The only Blue Devils still playing with Duke leading 3-2, Nze and Zsilinszka lined up with simultaneous match points to win their respective matches against their Georgia opponents.

Nze gets the bragging rights for this one, extracting a roar from the Blue Devil crowd at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center with her final point, moments before Zsilinszka completed her match on Court 3. But the real victor was Duke, who advanced to the championship match with a resounding win over No. 2 Georgia (27-3).

The Blue Devils will meet No. 8 California for the title Tuesday at 7 p.m. (ET). ESPNU will broadcast the match from College Station, Texas.

Duke captured its 17th win in a row with the victory. The Blue Devils have not lost since falling March 22 to Miami, an opponent they steamrolled en route to the national semifinals.

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Duke Storms Into Final Four

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Delayed start? Bitter rivalry?

No problem.

It seemed as if nothing could stop No. 3 Duke (27-3) from securing the 4-1 win Sunday afternoon at George P. Mitchell Tennis Stadium. The Blue Devils leaped past ACC rival and No. 6 Miami (26-5) into the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, dropping only one point along the way.

In the teams’ third meeting of the season–and first since Duke beat Miami for the ACC tournament crown April 19–the Blue Devils knew the Hurricanes would be seeking revenge. That meeting a month ago came down to one final singles duel between sophomore Reka Zsilinszka and Bianca Eichkorn at No. 3, in which Zsilinszka was down five match points and still outlasted Eichkorn for the win.

Sunday, Zsilinszka provided Duke with the clinching point once again. This time, Zsilinszka–and Duke–seemed determined to end things before the match came down to the final singles point.

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