No. 16 Duke Falls 4-0 to No. 10 Stanford

Saturday, February 21

Gainesville, Fla.

1:00 PM

Duke University

Stanford

Blue Devils Stay Perfect in ACC Play; Beat Pitt 7-0

No. 16 Duke Falls 4-0 to No. 10 Stanford

2/21/2015 4:41:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Playing its second match in as many days, the No. 16 Duke women's tennis team suffered its second setback in Florida, falling 4-0 to No. 10 Stanford on Saturday. The Blue Devils were dealt their fifth consecutive setback and fall to 4-5 overall.

For the second time in as many days, the Blue Devils were unable to secure the doubles point, falling on two of the three doubles courts against Stanford.

On court one, senior Ester Goldfeld and sophomore Alyssa Smith jumped out to an early 2-1 lead over Stanford's fifth-ranked pair of Taylor Davidson and Carol Zhao, but the Blue Devil tandem ultimately fell, 6-8. Neither pair was able to maintain any real momentum throughout the match, as Duke took a 3-2 lead and then conceded two games to fall behind, 3-4. Goldfeld and Smith then stormed back to take a 6-5 advantage before the Stanford duo put together a three-game run to clinch the match. With the loss, the pair of Goldfeld and Smith falls to 6-7 overall this season and 2-5 in dual matches.

The Duke tandem of junior Beatrice Capra and redshirt senior Rachel Kahan rallied numerous times throughout its match with 12th-ranked Caroline Doyle and Ellen Tsay, but were unable to pull away from the Stanford pair, dropping the contest, 5-8. After trailing 1-3 at the outset of the match, Capra and Kahan won two games to tie the match. Doyle and Tsay won two games of their own to once again see a two-game advantage, before the Blue Devil pair again won two games to knot the match at 5-5. In the end, Capra and Kahan were unable to mount a third comeback, dropping the final three games. The duo of Capra and Kahan now owns a 1-3 record both overall and in dual matches.

The match on court three between Duke's team of senior Annie Mulholland and freshman Samantha Harris and Stanford's duo of Krista Hardebeck and Lindsey Kostas went unfinished, with the Blue Devils leading, 7-4.

In singles, the Cardinal made it a 2-0 overall lead with a victory on court four as 92nd-ranked Hardebeck topped Smith, 0-6, 1-6. Smith falls to 2-5 in dual matches this spring and 0-3 in the No. 4 singles slot.

The Cardinal extended its lead to 3-0 as No. 10 Zhao downed No. 38 Goldfeld, 3-6, 4-6, on court one. Goldfeld fell behind 1-5 in the opening set before winning the next two games to close the gap before Zhao closed the set. In the second set, Goldfeld got out to a 2-0 advantage, but Zhao won five consecutive contests to put the set out of reach. Goldfeld slips to 5-2 in dual match action and 2-2 on court one this spring.

Stanford closed the match on court three as Doyle, ranked 16th, defeated 94th-ranked Kahan 0-6, 2-6. Kahan bounced back from the tough first set and took a 2-1 lead in the second set before dropping the last five games to Doyle. Kahan is now 1-6 in dual matches.

On the remaining three singles courts when action was halted, Stanford led in one while Duke held the upper hand in the other two. On court two, 115th-ranked Harris led No. 14 Davidson 7-6, 3-0. The two were evenly matched throughout the first set as neither led by more than two games. Harris trailed 0-2 and 2-3 before evening the match at 3-3, 4-4 and 6-6, eventually claiming the win in the tiebreaker.

On court five, Stanford's Tsay led freshman Rebecca Smaller 6-2, 5-3 and Duke's Mulholland was ahead of Kostas 6-2, 2-2 on court six when play was suspended.

Duke resumes competition next Friday, Feb. 27, welcoming No. 50 Virginia Tech to Durham, N.C. The match, scheduled for 6 p.m., will be played in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

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