No. 8 Duke Wins 5-2 Upset Over No. 6 Northwestern

Sunday, February 26

Durham, N.C.

1 p.m.

Duke University

Northwestern

Carleton Makes First Appearance As Blue Devil At National Indoors

No. 8 Duke Wins 5-2 Upset Over No. 6 Northwestern

2/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. -- The eighth-ranked Duke women's tennis team topped No. 6 Northwestern Sunday with its widest margin of victory since its upset of then-No. 8 Baylor in the first round of the National Team Indoor Championships four matches ago. The Blue Devils, now 5-2, put Northwestern (7-3) away by the same score they did Baylor, 5-2, in their 2006 home opener Sunday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Duke continued its seven-match streak of winning the doubles point, and the 45th-ranked duo of Jennifer Zika and Melissa Mang remained undefeated by picking up the first victory on court three, topping Jamie Peisel and Alexis Conill, 8-4.

The match on court one pitted the fifth and sixth ranked doubles team in the country against each other, with Duke's No. 6 Daniela Bercek and Jessi Robinson battling Northwestern's No. 5 Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis. Grier and Prousis assumed an early lead, going up 2-1, but Bercek and Robinson refused to let their opponent have more than a one-point lead and even went up one at 5-4 before Grier and Prousis pulled out the 8-6 win.

All eyes turned to court two, where Jackie Carleton and Kristin Cargill were playing an exhaustive match against Georgia Rose and Feriel Esseghir. It took a full hour and 15 minutes for the four to settle the score at 8-4 in Duke's favor. The Blue Devil pair was up 7-2 before the Wildcats staked a comeback with two straight points to make it 7-4, but Duke grabbed the next point to finish off the match and clinch the doubles point. Carleton and Cargill have been the doubles clinchers in three of the last four matches for Duke.

Mang carried the momentum over to singles, leading Duke on a 2-0 run by rolling over Northwestern's Esseghir, 6-0, 6-1. With the win, Mang improved to 6-1 in dual-match singles this year. Another freshman, Tara Iyer, followed up with a straight-set, 6-3, 6-2, win on court four to give Duke a 3-0 advantage, needing just one more point to clinch the match.

Zika returned from a 6-1 loss to in the first set on court three to give No. 36 Georgia Rose a game in the second. Zika was up 3-2 before Rose returned to claim a 6-5 lead. Zika pushed the game into a tiebreaker, but Rose proved victorious by a margin of 7-6 (4).

On the top two courts, Carleton and Bercek finished off their matches in quick succession, with No. 34 Carleton upsetting 15th-ranked Alexis Prousis first, 6-4, 6-1, to clinch the Duke win at 4-1. No. 2 Bercek played an intense first set with 10th-ranked Grier, holding a one-point favor until she was able to take the set 7-5. In the second set, Bercek put up the first three points, but Grier came back with the next two, making the score 3-2. From there, however, Bercek took over, eventually winning 6-2.

Cargill and Northwestern's Nazlie Ghazal traded sets on court six, with Cargill taking the first, 7-5 and Ghazal earning a 6-4 win in the second. With the match already decided, the pair played a tiebreaker in the place of a third set, which Ghazal won, 10-2.

Duke will stay at home for its next two matches, hosting No. 21 Wake Forest Wednesday and No. 40 N.C. State Thursday at the Ambler Tennis Stadium. Both matches are scheduled for 5 p.m.

No. 8 Duke 5, No. 6 Northwestern 2
February 26, 2006
Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center

Doubles
1. #5 Cristelle Grier/Alexis Prousis (N) d. #6 Daniela Bercek/Jessi Robinson (D), 8-6
2. Kristin Cargill/Jackie Carleton (D) d. Georgia Rose/Feriel Esseghir (N), 8-4
3. #45 Melissa Mang/Jessi Robinson (D) d. Jamie Peisel/Alexis Conill (N), 8-4
Order of Finish: 3,1,2*

Singles
1. #2 Daniela Bercek (D) d. #10 Cristelle Grier (N), 7-5, 6-2
2. #34 Jackie Carleton (D) d. #15 Alexis Prousis (N), 6-4, 6-1
3. #36 Georgia Rose (N) d. Jenny Zika (D), 6-1, 7-6 (4)
4. #57 Tara Iyer (D) d. Jamie Peisel (N), 6-3, 6-2
5. Melissa Mang (D) d. Feriel Esseghir (N), 6-0, 6-1
6. Nazlie Ghazal (N) d. Kristin Cargill (D), 7-5, 4-6 (10-2)
Order of finish: 5,4,3,2*,1,6