Duke Falls At North Carolina, 4-0, In NCAA Tournament Second Round

Saturday, May 14

Chapel Hill, NC

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Duke University

University of North Carolina

Duke Falls At North Carolina, 4-0, In NCAA Tournament Second Round

5/14/2005 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

May 14, 2005

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.- For the first time since 1990, the 15th-ranked Duke women's tennis team will not be playing in the final 16 of the NCAA Tournament as the Blue Devils fell, 4-0, at 13th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday in a match played at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Blue Devils conclude the injury-plagued season with a 16-11 record, while North Carolina improves to 22-9 and 16-0 in matches played at home this season. Duke had advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for 14 straight years prior to the loss on Saturday.

"The loss is frustrating, especially with it being here," said Duke Head Coach Jamie Ashworth. "It was tough to play here knowing that there are going to be some teams in Athens that we have beaten during the year. With what we were dealt with injuries and people sitting out it was a tough year."

In doubles play, North Carolina stormed out to early leads on two of the three courts, but in the featured match on court one, Duke's Jackie Carleton and Kristin Cargill got out to a 2-0 lead against fifth-ranked Aniela Mojzis and Kendall Cline.

At No. 1, the Duke duo of Carleton and Cargill went up 3-2 and led 6-5 at one point but three key calls by the official led to the Tar Heels winning three points and evening the score at 6-6. On court two, the Blue Devil tandem of Tory Zawacki and Clelia Deltour trailed 3-2 to 40th-ranked Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long, but rang off three straight games to go ahead, 5-3. Duke won three out of the next four games to win their first dual match of the season against a ranked opponent The Blue Devil duo of Zawacki and Deltour improved to 2-3 this season.

"Our doubles today, I told them was the best I have seen with the best intensity we have had," said Ashworth. "It is frustrating that we don't have anything to build on as far as another match."

Back on the first court, Duke's Carleton and Cargill ended up giving away the final three points as North Carolina's highly-ranked team of Mojzis and Cline won, 8-6. The important doubles point came down to the No. 3 court as Duke's Jennifer Zika and Parker Goyer battled Tanja Markovic and Caitlin Collins. Zika was playing with Goyer for the first time this season and only the third time in her career because senior Saras Arasu came down with a sinus infection. Zika was also playing in her first doubles match since March 23 due to an injured wrist.

"I wish I would of played a little bit better in doubles," said Cargill. "Jackie played really well and I started a little nervous. It was really close and we could have easily won the doubles point. I thought we fought really well in doubles."

North Carolina's Markovic and Collins led the entire match, but Duke kept it close and evened the contest, 6-6. The Tar Heels were too tough and were able to break Zika's serve to win, 8-6, on their third match point. For the season, Duke lost 17 of 27 doubles points and only won four out of the last 18 contests.

Even though Duke lost the doubles point to give North Carolina a 1-0 lead, the Blue Devils played the Tar Heels tight unlike last time and felt like they had the momentum heading into singles. Duke came out flat in singles and allowed North Carolina to go ahead in four of the six matches.

"We put up a good fight in doubles and I thought we actually had the momentum, [going into singles] because the last time we played Carolina we got killed in doubles so that was depressing," said Cargill.

Taking control early for the Tar Heels was 41st-ranked Mojzis as she won the first four games and cruised to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Duke's 97th-ranked Carleton on court one. The match took only 55 minutes and gave North Carolina a quick 2-0 advantage.

The rest of the matches were being controlled by North Carolina except for courts four and five as Cargill and Zawacki each rallied to win the first sets, respectively. Cargill, a native of Atlanta, Ga., was down 4-1 but won five consecutive games to win the first set. A product of Union, N.J., Zawacki was down 4-2, but won five of the next six games to win the first set, 7-5.

But North Carolina was ready to play on Saturday and was able to close out matches on courts three and six, respectively, in a matter of 10 seconds to clinch the match. In a rematch of the April 13 meeting when Duke's Deltour defeated Long, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, inside the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, North Carolina was able to get revenge winning 6-4, 6-2. After being up 2-0 in the first set, Long six of the next eight games and two key ones with the match tied, 4-4.

In the clinching match on court six, Duke's Zika was playing in her second straight match after missing 11 consecutive contests due to a wrist injury and was going up against Markovic. Having to play a three-set match the day before, Zika couldn't get anything going against Markovic as the Tar Heel won, 6-2, 6-0.

The matches on courts two, four and five were abandoned once North Carolina clinched the match with Duke leading No. 4 and No. 5.

"In singles today, I think UNC just outplayed us," said Ashworth. "I don't want to say we exerted to much in doubles, but we just came out too flat in singles. It is tough but they did a better job in singles than we did."

Duke concludes one of the most injury-plagued seasons in school history with 16 victories, which marks the first time since the 1993-94 (19) season the Blue Devils have not reached the 20-win plateau. Prior to the season the Blue Devils lost starter Julia Smith due to an elbow injury for her career, lost senior No. 1 player Katie Blaszak during the year with a back injury and Zika missed 11 matches.

The meeting between Duke and North Carolina was the first in the history of the two programs in the NCAA Tournament. The two losses by the Blue Devils to the Tar Heels marks the first time since the 1982-83 campaign that Duke has lost two matches to North Carolina in the same season.

Duke will return seven letterwinners next season and will welcome a stellar recruiting class.

"We have a really good group coming back and only lose Saras out of this group," said Ashworth. "Getting to the second round, having five of the six players back and with the addition of some players I think we will be in line for some good things next year.

#13 North Carolina 4, #15 Duke 0

Doubles:
1. #5 Kendall Cline/Aniela Mojzis (N) d. Kristin Cargill/Jackie Carleton (D) 8-6
2. Tory Zawacki/Clelia Deltour (D) d. #40 Sara Anundsen/Jenna Long (N) 8-5
3. Caitlin Collins/Tanja Markovic (N) vs..Parker Goyer/Jennifer Zika (D)  8-6
Order of Finish - 2, 1, 3*

Singles:
1. #41 Aniela Mojzis (N) d. #97 Jackie Carleton (D) 6-3, 6-0
2. #24 Kendall Cline (N) vs. Saras Arasu (D) 6-4, 2-2 abandoned
3. Jenna Long (N) d. Clelia Deltour (D) 6-4, 6-2
4. Kristin Cargill (D) vs. Sara Anundsen (N) 6-4, 1-2 abandoned
5. Tory Zawacki (D) vs. Caitlin Collins (N) 7-5, 0-1 abandoned
6. Charlie Tansill (N) vs. Jennifer Zika (D)  6-2, 6-0
Order of Finish - 1, 3, 6*
*clinching match