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Women's Tennis
vs ITA All-American Championship
Thursday, March 12
Las Vegas, Nev.
1:00 PM
Duke University
4
at
0
UNLV
Duke Downs UNLV in Las Vegas, 4-0
3/12/2015 6:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis
LAS VEGAS, Nev.-- The 20th-ranked Duke women's tennis team opened a two-match stretch in Las Vegas, Nev., with a win Thursday, upending UNLV in a non-conference contest, 4-0. The victory moves the Blue Devils to 9-5 on the season, while UNLV falls to 5-7. Thursday's match also marked the season debut for sophomore Chalena Scholl, who missed all of the fall and the first 13 competitions of 2015 due to injury.
“The biggest thing for us today was getting Chalena back in the singles and doubles lineup,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “She hasn't played since May. I think it helped everyone's spirits, having her in our lineup. She's worked unbelievably hard to get back to this point.”
Duke took a 1-0 advantage after winning the doubles point with wins on courts one and two. The contest was scored using the format from the indoor season, with doubles matches played to six games, rather than the traditional eight.
“Alyssa [Smith] and Ester [Goldfeld] did a good job at two today,” Ashworth said. “They played aggressively and efficiently. We went back to the scoring of six, so it was a little bit of a change, but they handled it well. It was good for them to get back together and play together.”
Goldfeld and Smith picked up a 6-1 decision on court two over UNLV's Santa Shumilina and Paola Artiga, marking the fourth dual match victory for the Duke duo this season.
On court one, the tandem of senior Annie Mulholland and freshman Samantha Harris continued its strong play, downing UNLV's Anett Ferenczi-Bako and Mercedes Lopez Valez, 6-4. Mulholland and Harris own a team-best record of 7-2 in dual matches.
The match between Duke's Beatrice Capra and sophomore Chalena Scholl and the UNLV tandem of Iren Kotseva and Alexis Garrett remained unfinished, with the Blue Devils leading, 5-4.
In singles, Duke would not drop a match, winning on courts one, two and six to conclude the contest.
On court one, Goldfeld, the 51st-ranked singles player, cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Shumiling. Goldfeld currently owns an overall record of 19-9 this season. The result moves the Brooklyn, N.Y., native within two wins of becoming the 24th singles player in Duke history to reach the 100-win plateau.
On court two, Harris posted her second win at the No. 2 position with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Ferenczi-Bako. Harris, the 106th-ranked singles player in the country, moved to 15-5 overall on the year. Smith remained perfect at the No. 6 position this season, downing Garrett, 6-3, 6-4. Smith improved to 10-12.
With the match clinched, the contests on courts three, four and five were abandoned. Although Scholl was unable to finish either of her matches this afternoon, Ashworth believes the impact of having her back in the lineup will pay dividends as the season moves into the heart of conference play.
“[Chalena] didn't get to finish her matches today, but just having her in there was big for our entire team,” Ashworth said. “That was the biggest thing for our whole team and our program.”
Duke returns to competition Friday in Las Vegas, facing NC State in a conference match. The competition is slated to begin at 2 p.m. (ET).
#GoDuke
Players Mentioned
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