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Women's Tennis
vs ITA Regional Championship
Friday, May 13
Chapel Hill, N.C.
TBA
Duke University
4
vs
1
Michigan
Duke Women's Tennis Advances Past Michigan, 4-1, In First Round Of NCAA Championship
5/13/2005 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 13, 2005
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.- In yet another come-from-behind victory, the 15th-ranked Duke (16-10) women's tennis team collected a 4-1 win over 32nd-ranked Michigan (14-12) on Friday to advance to the second round of the 2005 NCAA Championship at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Duke will next face 13th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday at 11:00 a.m., at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center for the right to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16 in Athens, Ga., on May 19.
"Michigan has played their best tennis at the end of the year as they got to the finals of the Big Ten," said Duke Head Coach Jamie Ashworth. "They have played a lot more recently than we have and historically in the first round matches we haven't played great. I was expecting a tough match and we were trying to get that across to our team as well."
In doubles action, Michigan got off to early leads on courts two and three. The Wolverine No. 2 duo of Leanne Rutherford and Allie Shafner jumped out to a 4-1 lead and had a 7-2 advantage at one point before winning the match, 8-3, over Duke's Tory Zawacki and Clelia Deltour. On court three, the Michigan tandem of Elizabeth Exon and Debra Streifler quickly went up 2-1, but the Blue Devil team of Parker Goyer and Saras Arasu battled back to go up 3-2.
While the match on court three was going on, it was back-and-forth on court one with Duke's Jackie Carleton and Kristin Cargill competing against 20th-ranked Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata. Duke jumped out to a 2-1 lead, but Michigan came back to win three out of the next four games to take a 4-3 advantage.
After many lead changes, Duke held a 6-5 lead on both court one and three, but the Wolverines came back to win two straight games on court three to clinch the important doubles point with an 8-6 victory and took a 1-0 lead in the match. For the season, Duke has lost 16 of 26 doubles points and only won four out of the last 17 contests.
With Michigan holding the momentum going into singles, the Blue Devils collected early leads on courts 1-3, but were down in each of the 4-6 positions, and needed four singles wins to advance to the NCAA Tournament second round. Duke managed to net comeback wins on courts 4-6 and won the first set on all six courts.
On the first court, Duke's 97th-ranked Carleton went up against 71st-ranked DaCosta. A product of Jenkintown, Pa., Carleton won the first three games and went on to win the first set, 6-1. In the second set, Carleton battled back from being down 2-1 to win 6-2 and notched her first dual match victory of the season against a ranked opponent. She improves to 15-14 overall and 2-8 at the No. 1 position.
"I feel confident," said Carleton. "We hadn't played a match in a while so it was just good to get out there. I think we came out a little flat in doubles but hopefully we can pick that up tomorrow."
With the match tied, 1-1, Deltour registered a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win over Delicata at the third position to give the Blue Devils their first lead of the day, 2-1. The victory for Deltour, a native of Savigny sur Orge, France, was her 30th singles win of the season, 30-11.
At No. 5, Duke's Zawacki rallied in the first two sets to win tiebreakers, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) over Streifler to put the Blue Devils ahead, 3-1. A native of Union, N.J., Zawacki trailed 4-1 in the first set and came back to four straight games to go ahead 5-4. Streifler wouldn't give up and took a 6-5 lead, but Zawacki came back to win the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-3. The second game was much like the first as Zawacki went ahead 4-2, but Streifler came back to go ahead 6-5. Zawacki was able to close out the match by winning the next game in a 7-5 tiebreaker.
"We were really excited [to get back on the court]," said Zawacki. "I didn't start out the way I wanted to as I got down 4-1, which is a big hole to get in. That wasn't the best situation, but once I got going again I was playing better. The tiebreaks were really tough, especially the second one, because I knew that it [the match] was winding down, I wanted to finish and wanted us to win."
The Blue Devils were then able to clinch the match at the No. 4 slot as Cargill defeated Rutherford, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2). Cargill, from Atlanta, Ga., came back from being down 2-1 in first set to win 7-5. Then in the second set, Cargill once again battled back from 3-1 and 5-4 deficits to win the tiebreaker, 7-2. She improved to 23-11 on the season in singles.
Playing in her first match since March 23, Jennifer Zika went up against Nina Yaftali of Michigan at No. 6. A product of Wels, Austria, Zika missed 11 matches due to an injured wrist. She came out and was down 3-0 and 5-2 early, but grinded back to win the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-4. Yaftali won the second set, 6-4, and the match was abandoned once Cargill clinched the match with Zika winning 4-1 in the final set.
"Jennifer played today and I don't know what she will do tomorrow," said Ashworth. "Probably the worst thing for her was to play three sets today if she is going to play tomorrow. We will have to see tomorrow morning how she feels, but it was good to have her back. It would of been nice if she would have been able to finish her match as she was up 4-1 in the third set."
Arasu's match at the No. 3 position was also abandoned with the senior from Tampa, Fla., winning 6-3, 5-3 over Michigan's Exon.
"We wanted it to be hot as possible today, but actually with it being cool I think it will help with our quick turnaround," said Ashworth.
North Carolina defeated Richmond, 4-0, in a match that lasted only an hour and a half in the morning. Earlier this season, UNC defeated Duke on the indoor courts at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, 4-3.
"I am so excited [to play North Carolina]," said Zawacki. "All of us cannot help to be excited to play our arch-rival, especially, being the last time we played we lost by one point."
#15 Duke 4, #32 Michigan 1Doubles: 1. Kristin Cargill/Jackie Carleton (D) vs. #20 Michelle DaCosta/Kara Delicata (M) 7-7 abandoned 2. Leanne Rutherford/Allie Shafner (M) d. Tory Zawacki/Clelia Deltour (D) 8-3 3. Elizabeth Exon/Debra Streifler (M) d. Parker Goyer/Saras Arasu (D) 8-6 Order of Finish - 2, 3*
Singles: 1. #97 Jackie Carleton (D) d. #71 Michelle DaCosta (M) 6-1, 6-2 2. Saras Arasu (D) v. Elizabeth Exon (M) 6-3, 5-4 abandoned 3. Clelia Deltour (D) d. Kara Delicata (M) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 4. Kristin Cargill (D) d. Leanne Rutherford (M) 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) 5. Tory Zawacki (D) d. Debra Streifler (M) 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) 6. Jennifer Zika (D) vs. Nina Yaftali (M) 7-6 (7-4), 4-1 abandoned Order of Finish - 1, 3, 5, 4* *clinching match
- d - u - k - e -
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