Duke Edged, 4-3, By No. 2 Notre Dame

Wednesday, March 15

Orlando, Fla.

10 a.m.

Duke University

Notre Dame

Duke Edged, 4-3, By No. 2 Notre Dame

3/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

ORLANDO -- The No. 5 Duke women's tennis team suffered its third 4-3 loss of the season Wednesday to second-ranked Notre Dame, who defeated the Blue Devils for the first time in program history. Duke (8-3) has given up only three defeats this year, all by the same margin, and each has gone into the third set of the last singles match left standing.

Duke relinquished the doubles point for the first time in 11 matches, falling in tight battles at each position. No. 11 Daniela Bercek and Jessi Robinson dropped an 8-5 decision to No. 39 Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft at No. 1, and No. 53 Melissa Mang and Jennifer Zika fell just short in a 9-7 match on court three against Katie Potts and Catrina Thompson. With the point already clinched, 47th-ranked Lauren Connelly and Kristina Statstny of the Fighting Irish barely pulled out of a 7-6 (7-5) battle with Kristin Cargill and Jackie Carleton.

Notre Dame gained a point on court one when No. 1 Daniela Bercek pulled out due to injury with the first set tied 4-4. No. 122 Mang put the first point on the board for the Blue Devils at No. 4, capturing her sixth straight singles win in one of only two straight-set matches during the day. Mang defeated Stastny, 6-1, 7-6 to improve her dual match record to 10-1.

Sophomore Clelia Deltour, playing in just her second match this year after returning from a wrist injury went down 6-2 in her first set at No. 6 with Connelly but fought back in the second set, which Connelly eventually won, 7-5. Cargill came through to pull Duke within one, winning at No. 5, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 over Potts.

Carleton made it two in a row for the Blue Devils, rebounding from a first-set loss to win her fifth straight singles match, 6-7 (7-4), 6-0, 6-1, against Buck and knot the overall score at 3-3. Attention turned to court three, where No. 62 Tara Iyer was in a heated duel with Tefft. The pair traded wins in the first two sets, each by a margin of 7-5, before Tefft took the final set and the match for Notre Dame, winning 6-3.

Duke hits the courts again in a week in its second contest in nine days against a team with a former Blue Devil at the helm. Duke will host Kathy Sell's Princeton team at 4 p.m. at the Ambler Tennis Stadium on Duke's West Campus on Wednesday in its first of four matches in a one-week span. Following the Princeton match, Duke will make a road trip to Virginia to play at the University of Virginia March 25 at noon and at Virginia Tech March 26 at 10:30 a.m. The Blue Devils will then return to Duke for a 5 p.m. contest March 28 against Florida.

Results
Doubles
1. #39 Brook Buck/Kelcy Tefft (N) def. #11 Bercek/Robinson (D), 8-5
2. #47 L.Connelly/K.Statstny (N) def. Cargill/Carleton (D), 7-6 (7-5)
3. Katie Potts/Catrina Thompson (N) def. #53 Mang/Zika (D), 9-7
Order: 1,3*,2

Singles
1. #39 Catrina Thompson (N) def. #1 Daniela Bercek (D), 4-4, ret.
2. #19 Jackie Carleton (D) def. Brook Buck (N), 6-7, 6-0, 6-1
3. Kelcy Tefft (N) def. #62 Tara Iyer (D), 7-5, 5-7, 6-3
4. #122 Melissa Mang (D) def. Kristina Stastny (N), 6-1, 7-6
5. Kristin Cargill (D) def. Katie Potts (N), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
6. Lauren Connelly (N) def. Clelia Deltour (D), 6-2, 7-5
Order: 1,4,6,5,2,3*