After a two-week break, No. 5 Virginia entered its conference opener against No. 15 Duke Friday ready to continue its yearslong regular-season domination of the ACC. The program had won 50 consecutive regular-season conference dual matches, with its most recent loss coming in January 2020.
The hosting Blue Devils (8-3, 1-0 ACC), however, came into the match ready to compete, and they made short work of the Cavaliers (8-3, 0-1 ACC). Exploiting Virginia’s poor doubles play and playing strong tennis on the lower courts allowed Duke to shatter the Cavaliers’ massive win streak with a 5-2 victory, one that makes a strong case for a significant rise in rankings.
Virginia is a young team — its singles lineup Friday included four freshmen — and though it is clearly very talented and among the strongest teams in the nation, it struggled against a much more experienced Duke side, exposing some major concerns about the team’s ability to place itself in positions to regularly win dual matches.
As has been a common occurence against high-level opposition this season, Virginia lost the doubles point. The pairing of freshman Keegan Rice and graduate student James Hopper — currently the No. 38-ranked duo in the country — did win their matchup on Court 1, against the No. 13 pairing. However, the pairings of sophomore Dylan Dietrich and junior Mans Dahlberg, and freshmen Rafael Jódar and Jangjun Kim, lost on Courts 2 and 3, sending the Cavaliers into singles down a point.
Virginia now has a 6-8 record in doubles matches against nationally ranked opponents. While it has regularly secured doubles points against lower-level competition, finding a way to win more doubles matchups to alleviate the pressure in singles is imperative for a team hoping to contend for a national title.
Duke quickly showed why winning a doubles point can be so important, securing the first set on three of the six singles courts. The Cavaliers had put out a new lineup, including debuting freshman Roy Horovitz — one of the top recruits in the class of 2024 — and moving Hopper up to Court 2 with Dietrich and Kim out for singles, both late scratches after having been on the posted lineup.
Jódar scored the first singles point with a 6-2, 6-2 win on Court 1, evening the score at one point apiece. The Spanish freshman has been unstoppable to start the season, with only one singles loss so far. His strong baseline play and mistake-free style has seen him rise to the No. 17 ranking — a remarkable feat considering he only joined the team in January.
The Blue Devils then retook the lead with a 6-1, 6-3 win on Court 6 against freshman Stiles Brockett. Within minutes, they pushed the lead to 3-1 with a win against Horovitz on Court 5, then secured the match with a 6-4, 6-4 win on Court 2 over Hopper.
Both of the remaining courts had gone to third sets, and were called early. Dahlberg was trailing in the third while Rice was leading, finalizing the score at 5-2 for Duke.
Virginia will return to action Sunday against North Carolina in the second leg of its Triangle road trip. The Tar Heels (6-3 0-0 ACC) are a weaker team than Duke, so a bounce-back win would be important for the Cavaliers, who will host No. 10 NC State and No. 1 Wake Forest next weekend.
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