No. 21 Duke Edges No. 35 Men's Tennis, 4-3
April 1, 2007
Durham, N.C. – The No. 35 University of Miami men’s tennis team dropped its second straight road match, falling to No. 21 Duke, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at Ambler Tennis Stadium.
With the loss, the Hurricanes evened their record at 9-9 overall and moved to 4-3 in the ACC, while the Blue Devils improved to 11-6 on the year and 4-1 in league play.
Although Duke remains undefeated on its home court at 7-0, Miami managed to earn the most points for an opponent in Durham and was nearly victorious, with the outcome of the match riding on the final set.
“We played a good, solid match against a tough ACC team,” said Miami head coach Mario Rincon.
The Blue Devils took the early 1-0 lead by claiming the doubles point, despite the seventh-straight victory for the 12th-ranked tandem of seniors Luigi D’Agord (Freeport, Bahamas) and Josh Cohen (Weston, Fla./Laurel Springs) in the top-flight doubles competition. The duo improved to 18-3 overall and 7-0 in ACC play by knocking off Duke’s eighth-ranked pair of Joey Atas and David Goulet for the second time this year.
As the teams moved into singles competition, 26th-ranked D’Agord used his seventh-straight win at the No. 1 position to knot the match at 1-all. The reigning ACC Player of the Week used straight sets to down No. 72 Joey Atas for the second time this year, improving to 19-3 overall, 7-0 in league competition and 9-3 versus ranked opponents. With 55 singles victories in just his second season with the Hurricanes, D’Agord ranks 22nd in career wins and is just three wins shy of entering the program’s top 20.
Miami tied the match again at 2-all with a win by (Basiglio, Italy) in the No. 6 position. The 6-2, 6-4 victory was the freshman’s second win in the last three matches, moving him to 2-1 in the conference.
Again the Hurricanes battled back to tie the match at 3-3, as Cohen – Miami’s third-winningest singles competitor ever – used straight sets to upset of Duke’s 43rd-ranked Kiril DImitrov. With Cohen’s second win of the year over a top-50 opponent, he improved to 17-9 overall and 5-2 in the ACC.
But the `Canes were unable to break the Blue Devil’s home-court advantage, as freshman (Bradenton, Fla./Pendleton) fell just short in the No. 5 spot versus Duke’s 101st-ranked Dylan Arnould. After taking the first set, 7-5, Whitner dropped the next two sets to end the comeback attempt by Miami.
“Josh played one of the best matches I’ve ever seen him play,” added Rincon. “And both Barnabas and JC played very well in singles.
“Luigi was solid today as well,” said Rincon. “He is learning to maintain his level throughout and to really close out matches.”
The Hurricanes return to the Neil Schiff Tennis Center to close out their regular-season home schedule with a pair of pivotal ACC matches this weekend. Miami opens competition versus No. 2 Virginia on Friday, April 6, at 3 p.m. and then take on No. 39 Virginia Tech on Sunday, April 8, at 1 p.m. Admission to both matches is free.
No. 21 Duke 4, No. 35 Miami 3
Singles
1. No. 26 Luigi D’Agord (UM) def. No. 72 Joey Atas (DUKE) 6-2, 6-3
2. Josh Cohen (UM) def. No. 43 Kiril Dimitrov (DUKE) 6-1, 7-6
3. No. 73 Peter Rodrigues (DUKE) def. Vivek Subramanian (UM) 6-1, 6-4
4. David Goulet (DUKE) def. Hector Nieto (UM) 6-2, 6-2
5. No. 101 Dylan Arnould (DUKE) def. J.C. Whitner (UM) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
6. Barnabas Carrega (UM) def. Aaron Carpenter (DUKE) 6-2, 6-4
Order of finish: 1, 3, 6, 4, 2, 5*
Doubles
1. No. 12 Luigi D’Agord/Josh Cohen (UM) def. No. 8 Joey Atas/David Goulet (DUKE) 8-6
2. Alex Stone/Dylan Arnould (DUKE) def. Vivek Subramanian/Hector Nieto (UM) 8-6
3. Peter Rodrigues/Kiril Dimitrov (DUKE) def. J.C. Whitner/Barnabas Carrega (UM) 8-2
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2*
