DURHAM – In a tightly-contested match on Saturday evening in Durham, the sixth-seeded Duke women’s tennis team fell in a 4-3 heartbreaker to 20th-ranked UCLA in the NCAA Tournament second round at Ambler Tennis Stadium.
The Blue Devils’ impressive season came to an end with a 23-5 overall record, while UCLA advanced to the final 16 with a 15-7 record. Duke’s 27-match home winning streak and 11-match unbeaten streak in NCAA Tournament matches in Durham came to an end.
How It Happened
• All three doubles courts were tight matches with Duke taking the first win on court two as 82nd-ranked Karolina Berankova and Emma Jackson never trailed in their match against Ava Catanzarite and Sasha Vagramov. The Blue Devils won a crucial deuce point to take a 2-1 lead and then broke the Bruns to lead 4-2. Duke went on to win, 6-3.
• Duke’s Iuliia Bryzgalova and Georgia Drummy led 3-2 against Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Fangran Tian, but UCLA came back to win three straight games to lead 5-3. After the Blue Devils cut into the lead, 5-4, the Bruins won 6-4.
• On court one, the doubles point came down to Duke’s 69th-ranked Ellie Coleman and Chloe Beck against UCLA’s seventh-ranked Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle. Duke led 3-1 early with a break on a key deuce point. The Bruins came back to win two consecutive games to even the score, 3-3. With the match tied, 4-4, Duke held serve to take a 5-4 lead. UCLA won two straight games to go ahead, 6-5, and was serving for the win. The Blue Devils trailed 40-15, but came back to even the match,…
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