No. 9 Blue Devils Smash Indiana 7-0

Friday, February 6

Durham, N.C.

4:30 p.m.

Duke University

Indiana

No. 9 Blue Devils Smash Indiana 7-0

2/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C.?The ninth-ranked Blue Devils remained unbeaten on the season tonight with a dominating 7-0 win over No. 30 Indiana in women's tennis action at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. Duke blanked the Hoosiers in straight sets and dropped just four games overall in the three doubles matches.

Duke is now 4-0 on the season, while Indiana suffers its first defeat to move to 6-1. It was the Blue Devils' 17th win over the Hoosiers in the all-time series.

“We play them every year and usually the matches are a little bit closer than they were tonight,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We've had tough matches with them before. We've won 5-2 or 6-1, but the scores in those matches have always been close. I thought we competed really well and I thought we used the momentum we got from the doubles to finish off the match.”

The Blue Devils won the doubles point for the fourth straight match, cruising to victories in all three. The tandem of rookie Mallory Cecil and senior Jessi Robinson put forth a dominant effort in an 8-0 shutout of Indiana's Sigrid Fischer and Myriam Sopel. Cecil and Robinson broke the Hoosier's opening serve and served out the match at 40-0 to push their record to 2-1 on the season.

Sophomore duo Reka Zsilinszka and Ellah Nze were next off the court with an 8-1 decision over Megan Matter and Lindsey Stuckey. The loss was the first for the Indiana pair as Zsilinszka and Nze remain unbeaten at 3-0.

The Blue Devils rounded out the doubles action with senior Melissa Mang and junior Amanda Granson triumphing over Katya Zapadalova and Alba Berdala 8-3. Mang and Granson are unbeaten in dual matches at 3-0.

“It was probably the best doubles we played all year, which is good leading into a good Princeton match and team indoors is really good to see,” Ashworth said.

The singles results were much the same for the Blue Devils as they cruised to straight set victories in each of the six matches.

“In singles we just wanted to ride the momentum from our doubles and we didn't finish points as well as we would have liked,” Ashworth said. “It's something that we're going to work on over the next week, but I think we did a good job of getting on top of most of the matches early. You look down the scores and you win the doubles point and you're up 3-0 on most of the courts, it gives everyone a lot of confidence.”

Robinson raced out fast and furiously, winning her match against Megan Matter 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6. The Rehoboth Beach, Del. native did not miss a beat in the first set, jumping to a 4-0 lead on the way to the 6-1 set. The second set was closer in the early games before Robinson took control to cruise to the two-set win.

Putting together an equally dominant performance at second singles, Nze cruised to an identical 6-1, 6-1 victory over the previously unbeaten Charlotte Martin. After Martin held her first serve to make it 1-1, Nze did not drop another game to capture the first set 6-1. She mirrored that performance in the second set to remain unbeaten on the year at 3-0.

Zsilinszka continued her stellar play at No. 3, breezing past Alba Berdala 6-1, 6-0. The Fayetteville, N.C. native has lost just five games in her four dual matches this season. She is a team-best 15-5 and has won six straight.

“She makes people earn every point,” Ashworth said. “She doesn't give away free points, she runs down a lot of balls, and what happens is people just start going for it too much.”

Duke's roll continued as Cecil finished out her match at No. 1 (6-4, 6-3) and Granson closed out her opponent at No. 4 (6-2, 7-5). Cecil fell behind 2-0 in the first set before getting back on serve and going up a break in the ninth game and serving out the 10th contest for the 6-4 win. The second set proved to be the opposite with Cecil taking a 2-0 lead before Zapadalova battled her way back on serve. Tied 3-3, Cecil broke Zapadalova to take a 4-3 lead. The Blue Devil rookie made it 5-3 on a good service game and breezed to the 6-3 second-set win.

““She didn't play as well as she would have liked, but a sign of a good player is winning when they don't play well,” Ashworth said. “She's learning that if she's going to play at the top of our lineup no matter who we play, most teams are going to have a good No. 1 and good No. 2.”

Granson wasted little time against Sigrid Fischer with a 6-2 romp in the opening set. Looking for the straight-set victory, Granson leaped out in front 4-0 before Fishcher put together a valiant comeback to tie the set 5-5. With the score tied and Fisher serving, Granson came up with the big break to make it 6-5 and served out the match for the 7-5 victory.

Mang closed out the sweep at No. 5 with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Lindsey Stuckey. After an easy first set victory for Duke, Mang looked like she would do the same in the second set with an early 4-0 lead. Stuckey bounced back with consecutive breaks to make it 4-4 and the two traded serves to head into the tiebreaker. Mang went up 3-2 and never looked back as she built it to 7-2 before taking the final set in a 7-3 tiebreaker. Mang remains unbeaten on the year and is on a seven match win streak.

The Blue Devils return to action on Feb. 8, hosting Princeton at 12 p.m., at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. It will be Duke's final tune-up prior to the ITA National Indoor Championships on Feb. 13-16.

#9 Duke University 7, #30 Indiana University 0
Feb 06, 2009 at Durham, N.C. (Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center)

Singles competition

1. Mallory Cecil (DU) def. Katya Zapadalova (IU) 6-4, 6-3

2. #43 Ellah Nze (DU) def. Charlotte Martin (IU) 6-1, 6-1

3. #56 Reka Zsilinszka (DU) def. Alba Berdala (IU) 6-1, 6-0

4. #48 Amanda Granson (DU) def. Sigrid Fischer (IU) 6-2, 7-5

5. Melissa Mang (DU) def. Lindsey Stuckey (IU) 6-2, 7-6 (7-3)

6. Jessi Robinson (DU) def. Megan Matter (IU) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. #20 Amanda Granson/Melissa Mang (DU) def. Katya Zapadalova/Alba Berdala (IU) 8-3

2. Jessi Robinson/Mallory Cecil (DU) def. Sigrid Fischer/Myriam Sopel (IU) 8-0

3. Ellah Nze/Reka Zsilinszka (DU) def. Megan Matter/Lindsey Stuckey (IU) 8-1