Duke Ends ACC Championship with 4-1 Loss

Thursday, April 21

Cary, N.C.

1:00 PM

Duke University

Notre Dame

Duke Ends ACC Championship with 4-1 Loss

4/21/2016 5:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. – The No. 68 Duke men's tennis team ended its ACC Championship trip with a 4-1 loss to No. 41 Notre Dame on Thursday afternoon at the Cary Tennis Park. The Blue Devils registered their point with a straight-set victory by senior Josh Levine.

Duke (11-15) had its season come to an end with the setback to the Fighting Irish (15-12).

“It's unusual for us,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “I've never been in a situation where we haven't been in the team event. We're going to do everything we can to get Nico [Alvarez] ready for NCAAs. He's peaking at the right time and I think he can go far.”

In doubles, Notre Dame took the point with victories on courts one and three. The Fighting Irish earned the first win with a 6-2 triumph on court three by Grayson Broadus and Nicolas Montoya against senior Daniel McCall and freshman Jason Lapidus. The two teams were even at 2-2 before Notre Dame broke and captured the final four games of the match. McCall and Lapidus even their overall record at 9-9.

Notre Dame finished the point on court one with a 6-3 victory by the No. 12 team of Alex Lawson and Quentin Monaghan versus freshmen Catalin Mateas and Vincent Lin. The two teams were even at points one, two and three before the Fighting Irish held, broke and held to end the contest. Mateas and Lin fall to 8-5 overall.

The court two match between sophomore Nicolas Alvarez and junior TJ Pura and the Irish's No. 44 pair of Eddy Covalschi and Josh Hagar was halted with the Blue Devils leading 5-2.

Notre Dame made it a 2-0 lead on court two, where Hagar downed Mateas, 6-1, 6-0. Mateas drops to 14-10 overall.

Duke tallied its point on court five to make it a 2-1 deficit as Levine rolled past Kenneth Sabacinski, 6-2, 6-1. Levine turned a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 advantage in the opening set. Sabacinski got a game back for a 3-2 deficit, but Levine took the last three games before breezing through the second set. Levine ups his overall record to 17-13, tied for the second most victories on the squad.

The Fighting Irish tallied their third point with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 triumph by Covalschi against Lin on court three. In the opening set, Lin fell behind 2-0, 4-1 and 5-3 before knotting the set at 5-5. The two remained even and went to the tiebreaker, which Covalschi won. In the second set, the two were square at 1-1 and 2-2 before Covalschi held, broke and held to go up 5-2 and finish out the match. Lin slips to 20-17 overall.

Registering the final point was Broadus on court six as he topped McCall 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-2. After McCall dropped the first set, he rebounded in the second and was tied 2-2 before Broadus took a 4-2 advantage. McCall cut the deficit to 4-3, but Broadus pushed the advantage back to 5-3. McCall then evened the second set and extended it to a tiebreaker. Once in the tiebreaker, McCall came away with win. The third set had Broadus go up 4-0 before McCall got a game. McCall cut the deficit to 5-2, but Broadus served out to end the match. McCall drops to 8-14 this year.

On court four, the match between Pura and Lawson was halted with Lawson leading 6-7 (5), 6-2, 4-2. The court one contest between No. 21 Alvarez and No. 32 Monaghan stopped with Alvarez holding a 2-6, 6-2, 4-1 advantage.

“It was a great complete match for Nico,” Smith added. “I'm really disappointed for him that he didn't get to finish because he had things in control in the third set. I thought he really handled adversity really well. Quentin took the first set, but then Nico reset, refocused, stuck with it, had a good game plan and broke Quentin down. That's really, really hard to do because that's what Quentin's game is. Nico is playing great tennis.”

#41 Notre Dame 4, #68 Duke 1
April 21, 2016 at Cary Tennis Park (Cary, N.C.)

Singles competition
1. #32 Quentin Monaghan (ND) vs. #21 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 6-2, 2-6, 1-4, unfinished
2. Josh Hagar (ND) def. Catalin Mateas (DU) 6-1, 6-0
3. Eddy Covalschi (ND) def. Vincent Lin (DU) 7-6 (5), 6-3
4. Alex Lawson (ND) vs. TJ Pura (DU) 6-7 (5), 6-2, 4-2, unfinished
5. Josh Levine (DU) def. Kenneth Sabacinski (ND) 6-2, 6-1
6. Grayson Broadus (ND) def. Daniel McCall (DU) 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-2

Doubles competition
1. #12 Alex Lawson/Quentin Monaghan (ND) def. Catalin Mateas/Vincent Lin (DU) 6-3
2. #44 Eddy Covalschi/Josh Hagar (ND) vs. Nicolas Alvarez/TJ Pura (DU) 2-5, unfinished
3. Grayson Broadus/Nicolas Montoya (ND) def. Jason Lapidus/Daniel McCall (DU) 6-2

Match Notes
Duke 11-15; National ranking #68
Notre Dame 15-12; National ranking #41
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (2,5,3,6)
T-2:58

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