Duke Closes Season With Quarterfinal Loss To No. 1 Stanford

Friday, May 19

Palo Alto, Calif.

9 p.m.

Duke University

Stanford - Quarterfinals

Duke Closes Season With Quarterfinal Loss To No. 1 Stanford

5/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

PALO ALTO, Calif. ? The 10th ranked and eighth seeded Duke women's tennis team lost a 4-0 battle to No. 1 Stanford in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships to close out the 2006 season Friday. In a match suspended three-and-a-half hours due to rain, the Blue Devils and Cardinal finished after midnight following a 9:30 p.m. PDT start at Stanford, where the Cardinal has won 105 straight home matches.

Pitted against the top singles tandem in the country, No. 31 Daniela Bercek and Jennifer Zika fell, 8-3, to Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey at the top doubles flight. With Stanford needing one match to claim the doubles point, Jackie Carleton and Melissa Mang had gone up 5-3 at No. 2 over the 22nd-ranked Amber Liu and Celia Durkin, and Tara Iyer and Jessi Robinson had fought back from a 2-5 deficit to pull within 5-7 of Jessica Nguyen and Lejla Hodzik. Carleton and Mang went up 6-4, but Stanford remained perfect in doubles matches in the 2006 NCAA Tournament when the Cardinal duo grabbed one more game for an 8-5 win over Iyer and Robinson.

Stanford gained a two-point lead with a win at No. 6 when 34th-ranked Durkin topped Robinson, 6-2, 6-2. Robinson, Duke's match-clincher in the 4-1 win over North Carolina Thursday, lost the first set and gained her first lead at 2-1 in the second. Durkin responded by winning five games for the 6-2 victory.

Stanford's 11th-ranked Yelsey followed with a win at No. 4 over 88th-ranked Iyer. Iyer led at 3-2 in the first set but fell behind at 3-4 and eventually lost, 6-3, 6-3. No. 71 Mang lost her first set 6-0 to No. 10 Theresa Logar in her only scoreless set of the dual season and her second of the year. After losing the first game of the second set, she gained her first point of the match but fell behind 2-5 before attempting a comeback by winning the next two games. Logar clinched the Stanford win on the third court, however, by taking the next game for a 6-4 win.

Thirty-second ranked Carleton trailed, 6-2, 5-2, to fifth-ranked Barnes at No. 2, and No. 102 Clelia Deltour was behinnd, 6-1, 4-3, to No. 52 Whitney Deason on court five when play was stopped. Fourth-ranked Bercek was the only Blue Devil to win her first set, as she topped No. 8 Liu, 6-1. Liu led 4-3 in the second set at the end of an injury timeout called by Bercek when the match ended.

Stanford will play fourth-seeded Florida, a 4-0 winner against fifth-seeded Baylor, Sunday at noon at Taube Stadium.

The Blue Devils close the 2006 campaign with a 20-8 record, having reached the NCAA quarterfinal for the 13th time in school history and the third time in the last four years. Stanford defeated Duke the last time the Blue Devils appeared in the quarterfinal in 2004 in Athens, Ga.

Carleton and Bercek will remain in Palo Alto as both were selected to compete in the individual NCAA Singles Championships, which begin Tuesday at Stanford.

NCAA Women's Quarterfinals
May 19, 2006
Taube Stadium Courts
Doubles
1. Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey-1 (S) def. Daniela Bercek and Jennifer Zika-31 (D), 8-3
2. Jackie Carleton and Melissa Mang (D) led Celia Durkin and Amber Liu-22 (S), 6-4 ? DNF
3. Lejla Hodzic and Jessica Nguyen (S) def. Tara Iyer and Jessi Robinson (D), 8-5
Order of finish: 1, 3

Singles
1. Daniela Bercek-4 (D) led Amber Liu-8 (S), 6-1, 3-4 ? DNF
2. Alice Barnes-5 (S) led Jackie Carleton-32 (D), 6-2, 5-2 ? DNF
3. Theresa Logar-10 (S) def. Melissa Mang-71 (D), 6-0, 6-4
4. Anne Yelsey-11 (S) def. Tara Iyer-88 (D), 6-3, 6-3
5. Whitney Deason-52 (S) def. Clelia Deltour-102 (D), 6-1, 4-3 ? DNF
6. Celia Durkin-34 (S) def. Jessi Robinson (D), 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 6, 4, 3