Duke Women Win the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Crown

Monday, January 31

Durham, N.C.

2:00 PM

Duke University

Texas A&M - Championship Match

Sixth-ranked Duke Travels to No. 9 Florida Sunday

Duke Women Win the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Crown

1/31/2011 6:33:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 7 Duke women's tennis team advanced to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships following a 6-1 over Texas A&M at the 2011 ITA Kick-off Weekend on Monday.

The Blue Devils opened the championship with three hard-fought doubles matches against the Aggies. The No. 34 pair of Reka Zsilinszka and Hanna Mar finished off Sheri Olivier and Christi Potgieter 8-6 after starting the match down by one. Monica Gorny and Mary Clayton fell 8-5 after starting 2-0 to Nazari Urbina and Morgan Frank to make things all square at one in doubles.

The No. 4 doubles tandem of Ellah Nze and Nadine Fahoum battled with Janelle Cuthbertson and Christi Liles throughout the match. Fahoum and Nze eventually sealed the doubles point for Duke with an 8-5 victory to give the Blue Devils the early 1-0 lead.

“It's huge know that you can get a big effort from two out of three doubles teams,” said head coach Jamie Ashworth. “Today was the first time we had pressure on us in doubles and had our heels on us a little bit. We've won all of our doubles matches before today fairly easily but we need that, to be put in pressure situations. Looking ahead to Northwestern next weekend, having Florida here and then National Team Indoors after that, we are going to be in those type of situations so it was good for us to have to deal with that now and to see how we reacted.”

Following a tough doubles round, Duke opened the singles competition winning the first set in all six matches. The Blue Devils continued that success, winning five of six matches in straight sets. Freshman Rachel Kahan continued her stellar play as she was the first to walk off the courts for the Blue Devils with the straight set victory 6-1, 6-0 from the No. 5 spot.

Elizabeth Plotkin picked up the third point in the match for the Blue Devils from the No. 3 spot, while freshman Hanna Mar sealed the championship and a bid to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships for Duke from the No. 6 spot.

With the championship clinched, three matches remained on courts one, two and four. On court four, Nze claimed her spot in the Blue Devil 100 win-club with a straight set victory over Christi Liles 6-3, 7-5, to become the 20th player to reach the milestone at Duke.

“I am really excited and it's a great accomplishment especially in a tough conference,” said Nze. “It speaks a lot about a program and I wouldn't want to have 100 wins anywhere else, I'm really happy.”

Zsilinszka grabbed the fifth straight set victory for Duke on the day at the No. 2 spot and moved to 4-0 on the season. The court one match-up featuring two top-25 players was played out in a third-set tiebreaker, with No. 25 Fahoum falling for the only loss on the day to No. 17 Urbina 6-2, 3-6, 0-1 (8-10).

With the win Duke moved to 4-0 on the year and Texas A&M fell to 1-2 overall. The Blue Devils will travel to Indiana on Feb. 4 and then face off with No. 20 Northwestern on Feb. 6.

-d-u-k-e-

#7 Duke 6, #36 Texas A&M 1
Jan. 31, 2011 at Durham, N.C. (Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center)

Singles competition

1. #17 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. #25 Nadine Fahoum (DU) 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)

2. #4 Reka Zsilinszka (DU) def. #102 Morgan Frank (TAMU) 6-3, 6-4

3. #71 Elizabeth Plotkin (DU) def. Christi Potgieter (TAMU) 6-2, 6-3

4. #49 Ellah Nze (DU) def. Christi Liles (TAMU) 6-3, 7-5

5. Rachel Kahan (DU) def. Janelle Cuthbertson (TAMU) 6-1, 6-0

6. Hanna Mar (DU) def. Sheri Olivier (TAMU) 6-2, 6-4

Doubles competition

1. #4 Nadine Fahoum/Ellah Nze (DU) def. Janelle Cuthbertson/Christi Liles (TAMU) 8-5

2. Morgan Frank/Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. #39 Mary Clayton/Monica Gorny (DU) 8-5