Entering Friday's match against No. 2 Duke, the Indiana University women's tennis team was 0-11 against the Blue Devils in the new millennium. In Las Vegas, Nev., the No. 60 Hoosiers earned their first win of the season against an opponent ranked in the top 50 by defeating Duke 4-2.
Duke had only five healthy players available for the dual match, which allowed IU to win the No. 3 doubles match and No. 6 singles match by default. The Blue Devils needed to win both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches to win the doubles point.
Annie Mulholland/Marianne Jodoin defeated IU sophomores Alecia Kauss and Shannon Murdy 8-4 in the No. 2 match. Duke took a 1-0 match lead when No. 35 Hanna Mar/Ester Goldfeld topped Indiana's No. 52 tandem of senior Leslie Hureau and junior Sophie Garre 8-6 in the No. 1 spot.
With the Blue Devils unable to fill the No. 6 singles position, the Hoosiers tied the match at 1.
All five singles matches went to three sets--Duke won every first set and Indiana responded by winning every second set.
"The highlight of the match has to be that after losing the first set in every singles match, we came back and won every second set," IU Coach Lin Loring said.
IU defeated ranked opponents in the first three singles matches. Hureau bested No. 35 Goldfeld 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 1 match. In the No. 3 spot, sophomore Carolyn Chupa defeated No. 88 Mary Clayton to give the Hoosiers a 3-1 lead.
Duke earned its only singles point when No. 84 Jodoin defeated Garre 6-3, 7-5, 6-0 in the No. 5 match to bring the Blue Devils within one point of IU.
Indiana won the match when sophomore Katie Klyczek topped No. 16 Mar 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 2 position.
The No. 4 match between Kauss and Mulholland was not finished.
"We have been close to beating top 20 teams all year," IU Coach Lin Loring said. "We have kept telling the girls that we are good team and just keep believing. You could feel the momentum changing. This was a huge win for our program."
With the victory, the Hoosiers improved to 11-4 on the season. They will next face Penn State at home on Friday at 5:00 p.m. and Ohio State on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
