No. 24 Virginia Falls To No. 2 Duke Sunday
March 4, 2018
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 24 Virginia (7-4, 2-2 ACC) women’s tennis team dropped an ACC match at home for the first time this season, falling to No. 2 Duke (10-1, 3-0 ACC) by a score of 7-0 at the Snyder Tennis Center on Sunday.
The Blue Devils took the doubles point and swept the singles matches on the way to the victory.
“It was a tough match for us today,” said Virginia head coach Sara O’Leary. “I have to give a lot of credit to Duke. They played well and competed well with the windy conditions and a lot of deuce points. They handled themselves well. This was a great learning experience for our team that showed us some specific things we need to work on with each player individually. We have two weeks to do that by getting on the practice court and building off of this. We’re excited to get back to work.”
Duke opened the match with wins on courts one and three in doubles. The sixth-ranked pairing of Kelly Chen and Samantha Harris defeated Virginia’s duo of Rosie Johanson (Abbotsford, British Columbia) and Meghan Kelley (Falmouth, Maine) on court one by a score of 6-3. The Blue Devils clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win on court three by Meible Chi and Hannah Zhao over Virginia’s Teodora Radosavljevic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Erica Susi (Vero Beach, Fla.).
Virginia’s doubles team of Chloe Gullickson (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Cassie Mercer (Huntington, W.Va.) was tied 5-5 on court two with the third-ranked duo from Duke when the doubles point was clinched. The match went unfinished.
The Blue Devils, who have four players ranked in the top 100 of the latest Oracle/ITA women’s singles rankings, swept through the singles matches with straight set victories on courts one through five.
Susi was the lone match to go to a third, as she split with Zhao on court six. Susi won the first set, but the Duke player was able to take the second and force a super tiebreak in the third. Zhao won the super tiebreak 10-8 to close the afternoon.
Virginia will return to action with an ACC road trip the weekend of March 16-18. The Cavaliers will travel to face Louisville on Friday, March 16, before taking on No. 46 Notre Dame on Sunday, March 18.
No. 2 Duke 7, No. 24 Virginia 0
Singles
1. No. 10 Samantha Harris (Duke) def. No. 67 Rosie Johanson, 6-3, 6-4
2. No. 87 Kaitlyn McCarthy (Duke) def. Cassie Mercer, 6-1, 6-3
3. No. 22 Kelley Chen (Duke) def. Meghan Kelley, 6-2, 6-3
4. No. 47 Meible Chi (Duke) def. Teodora Radosavljevic, 6-1, 6-3
5. Ellyse Hamlin (Duke) def. Chloe Gullickson, 6-3, 6-4
6. Hannah Zhao (Duke) def. Erica Susi, 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8)
Order of Finish: 2, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6
Doubles
1. No. 6 Chen/Harris (Duke) def. No. 14 Johanson/Kelley, 6-3
2. Gullickson/Mercer vs. No. 3 Hamlin/McCarthy (Duke), 5-5 (unfinished)
3. Chi/Zhao (Duke) def. Radosavljevic/Susi, 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 3