No. 4 Duke Holds Off Huskies, 4-1

SEATTLE – Playing their third top-10 opponent in three days, the Husky women’s tennis team again showed it can hang with some of the nation’s best teams, but UW could not create quite enough chances tonight against 4th-ranked Duke, as the Blue Devils earned the 4-1 win.
 
Washington ended its play at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships with a 1-2 record, getting a win over 9th-ranked Vanderbilt, and falling to No. 1 Texas and No. 4 Duke. Monday, North Carolina and Georgia will compete for the championship at 12 noon at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
 
Washington played its best doubles of the season to earn the early lead. At the three spot, Sarah-Maude Fortin and Jennifer Kerr lost the first game to Jackson/Bryzgalova, but then reeled off six games in a row for the 6-1 win. On court number two, Hikaru Sato and Zehra Suko broke serve to take a 5-3 lead over the 25th-ranked tandem of Coleman/Berankova. Sato then held serve to finish it, 6-3, and clinch the point. The No. 1 match went unfinished with Erika Matsuda and Astrid Olsen down 3-5 to Duke’s 14th-ranked top pair.
 
In singles, the Huskies were in it early, but Duke had a surge midway through the first sets to take the momentum. The Blue Devils have three singles players ranked in the top-28 nationally, and the visitors grabbed all six first sets in singles by either 6-4 or 6-3 scores.
 
The Huskies wouldn’t give in, and were doing all they could to force their way into third sets and extend the match. But Duke put away two matches on courts three and five, as Astrid Olsen fell to Georgia Drummy at three, 6-3, 6-4, and Melissa Sakar lost, 6-3, 6-3, on five to Ellie Coleman.
 
At No. 2 singles, Sarah-Maude Fortin was down 3-6, 0-3 to 28th-ranked Cameron Morra, but Fortin rallied back and broke serve to get even at 5-5 in the second set. Next to Fortin, on court four, Jennifer Kerr had gone from 4-5 down to up 6-5 in her second set against 21st-ranked Emma Jackson. And Hikaru Sato was also looking to force a third, at 5-5 in her second set against 5th-ranked Chloe Beck.
 
Meanwhile, Erika Matsuda was the first Husky to get a set, as she went to a third against Iulia Bryzgalova on No. 6.
 
But Duke proved too tough tonight. Fortin’s comeback was ended, 6-3, 7-5, against Morra, for the third point. Kerr was in a tiebreak and leading 4-2 in the breaker on court four, but Sato fell short, 6-4, 7-5, against Beck to bring the match to a close. Matsuda was at 2-3 in her third set at…