Tennis captures first ever win over Duke
By Jon Drews / Student Publications
Tech won its sixth straight conference game and improved to 6-1 in conference play. The team is tied for first with Clemson and Miami.
The No. 7 Tech women's tennis has been performing well all season, but played some of the toughest competition they have seen all year last Saturday and Sunday.
The Lady Jackets were able to defeat No. 13 North Carolina on Saturday 4-3, while they followed that up with a 4-3 victory over No. 20 Duke. Tech's record now stands at 15-4 overall, and 6-1 in conference play.
In Saturday's victory, the winning blow did not come from Kristi Miller, Christy Striplin or any of the other top 100-ranked players on the team. It came from Amanda McDowell. She defeated UNC's Sara Anundsen 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 to clinch the match. Before that, No. 75 ranked Tarryn Rudman's upset victory over UNC's No. 51 Sanaz Marand 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 gave the Jackets the 3-2 lead overall to set the stage for McDowell's match clinching victory.
The Lady Jackets' victory over Duke was their first in over 30 tries, leaving the Blue Devils feeling like they were on the bitter end of an April Fool's Day joke gone awry. While Duke had been dominant against Tech to this point, the Jackets dominated this match from the word 'go.'
While the final score was 4-3, the match was clinched overall after just five points. Tech's Kristi Miller, Amanda Craddock, Alison Silverio and Christy Striplin won the first four singles matches out of four to clinch after the Blue Devils won the doubles point.
Out of those matches, the only one that was in doubt was No. 119 Silverio's match against Duke's No. 59 ranked Melissa Mang.
Silverio led 7-6 after a first tiebreaker victory, but Mang won the next set 6-5 and led the third and deciding set 4-1 before Silverio won the next five sets to win the set 6-4 and take the match.
Tomorrow, the Lady Jackets will attempt to continue their winning streak in Winston-Salem, N.C. against Wake Forest, which will be followed by an Easter Sunday trip north to face off against N.C. State in Raleigh, N.C.
The men's tennis team fell to 5-12 overall and 2-5 in conference play after losing to Virginia and Virginia Tech last weekend. They host N.C. State and Wake Forest this weekend.
