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Duke Edges ASU 4-2 In NCAA Regional Semifinal
May 10, 2008
Chapel Hill, NC - The 43rd-ranked Duke Blue Devils mounted a huge comeback to complete the afternoon portion of the NCAA tournament's regional semifinals on Saturday with a 4-2 win over 23rd-ranked Arizona State. The victory over the Sun Devils earns Duke a spot in the regional finals against regional host North Carolina, the 12th seed in the tournament, on Sunday. The winner of the regional final will advance to Tulsa, Oklahoma to compete as one of 16 regional winners for a NCAA championship. Arizona State took an immediate lead by winning the first two double matches played, an 8-3 victory at the third spot and an 8-4 win at the top spot. The latter match was a matchup of top-50 doubles pairs, as 44th-ranked TJ Bellama and Matt Brooklyn pulled off an upset of 33rd-ranked David Goulet and Christopher Price to clinch the team doubles point and put ASU up 1-0. However, singles was a different story, as 78th-ranked Reid Carleton's upset win over 69th-ranked Andres Arango quickly put Duke even with Arizona State at 1-1. The Sun Devils answered with an upset win of their own, as 74th-ranked Matt Brooklyn beat 55th-ranked David Goulet, but back-to-back wins by Dylan Arnould and Alain Michel swung the momentum back in the Blue Devils' favor with two matches left to finish. Alex Stone delivered the clincher for Duke, prevailing over Wes Miller by the score of 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 to seal the win at 4-2. "I thought our doubles looked a little bit rough today," said Duke Head Coach Jay Lapidus of his team's performace against ASU. "I don't think we played as well as we can. In singles, though, I thought we did a great job of competing, as we were down a set on a couple of courts and we came back." Arizona State finishes the year at 15-5, as a top-25, NCAA tournament participant team. The Sun Devils finished their conference season fifth in the Pac-10. Duke, on the other hand, improves to 11-13, and will advance to face regional site host North Carolina on Sunday. The match will be played at 1 p.m. at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. #43 Duke 4, #23 Arizona State 2
Singles
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