April 21, 2014

Sports

the blue zone

The Chronicle

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MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2014

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Track and Field

Duke takes decathlon podium

Blue Devils bring home four titles at ACC Championships

by Ali Wells The Chronicle

Duke had never won a conference decathlon title prior to this weekend. The Blue Devils atoned for this by sweeping the podium at the ACC Champioships.

Robert Rohner, Ian Rock and Curtis Beach helped the Blue Devils to a fourthplace finish at the three-day meet in Chapel Hill. Duke brought home four individual ACC titles and eight podium finishes to continue an impressive outdoor season.

The Blue Devils had hoped to bring in a lot of points with strong finishes in the decathlon but did not expect Rohner and Rock to outscore Beach, the event favorite and 2014 NCAA Indoor Heptathlon champion.

“It was a great couple of days,” associate head coach Shawn Wilbourn said. “I thought we could go 1-2-3. The way they finished is not exactly how I expected.

But we got the sweep. Those guys competed hard both days.”

Rohner opened an impressive first day with a win in the 100-meter sprint, crossing the line in 10.73 seconds. Three-tenths of a second behind Rohner, Beach finished in third. But the redshirt senior grabbed the lead from Rohner with a decisive win in the long jump, clearing 23 feet, 10 3/4 inches, nearly a foot and a half further than Rohner in second place.

But Beach fell back in the shot put

Special to The Chronicle

Robert Rohner (middle), Ian Rock (left) and Curtis Beach (right) swept the podium in the decathlon at the ACC Championships in Chapel Hill. and high jump, taking ninth in the shot put with a throw of 36 feet, 4 3/4 inches and seventh in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet.

Rohner placed third in both events to reclaim and then extend his lead.

Clearing all earlier heights on his first attempts, he finished the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 2 1/4 inches.

The Blue Devils swept first through fourth in the 400 meters, the final event of Thursday evening. Rohner claimed his second win of the decathlon, crossing the line in 48.62 seconds. He had teammates right behind him,

baseball

as Beach, freshman Chaz Hawkins and Rock all finished in less than 50 seconds, the only competitors to break that time.

At the end of the first day of competition, Rohner was comfortably in first with 3,930 points, and Beach sat in second with 3,784 points. Rock, who had steadily finished in the top eight in all five of the day’s events, was in seventh place.

“I had a good first day,” Rohner said. “I wasn’t expecting it coming in… I just took care of my events and it worked out for me.”

Rohner and Beach continued to trade the lead in Friday’s events.

After a false start in the 110-meter hurdles, Beach ran the event in 15.51 seconds, good for third place. Rohner took ninth with a time of 16.18 seconds and Rock placed fifth with a personal-best 15.62 seconds.

Rohner reclaimed his lead with a strong performance in the discus, turning in a mark of 124 feet, 6 inches for second place. Rock earned seventh with his throw of 107 feet, 9 inches and Beach fell behind with his throw of 106 feet, 8 inches for eighth place.

Rock surged up the leaderboard with three events to go by claiming a win in the pole vault. Besting the competition by nearly a foot, the junior cleared 16 feet, 6 3/4 inches. Beach took fourth with a mark of 14 feet, 7 1/4 inches, with Rohner clearing a foot less for seventh place.

After placing second in the javelin with a mark of 177 feet, 8 inches, Rock had quickly climbed from seventh place to second overall with one event left. Rohner took third in the javelin, throwing 176 feet, 1 inch and setting himself up for a first-place overall finish.

The javelin proved to be Beach’s downfall.

Finishing at the back of the pack with a throw of 106 feet, 7 inches, the redshirt senior was troubled by an elbow injury, which had kept him from throwing the javelin since last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships.

“I hurt it on my third attempt,” Beach said. “The first two were just really bad throws because I hadn’t thrown it in forever. So I really tried to crank it on the last one.”

The deficit was too much for Beach to make up in the 1,500 meters, his best See Track, page 4

MEn’s Tennis

Blue Devils upset Tar Duke sweeps Hokies behind stellar pitching Heels on Senior Day

by Brian Pollack The Chronicle

A day after their offense carried them to an easy victory, the Blue Devils relied on their pitching to finish off a series sweep.

Duke shut out Virginia Tech 2-0 Sunday DUKE 3 afternoon at English Field, earning their 2 third sweep of an VT DUKE 13 ACC opponent this year.

Sophomore 3 Michael Matuella VT continued his imDUKE 2 pressive season and 0 led the Blue Devils VT to their fifth consecutive win with 8.2 innings of four-hit ball. “[Matuella’s] got major-league stuff and he commands it,” head coach Chris Pollard said.

“He threw a lot of fastballs today and guys at times were sitting on the fastball, knew it was coming. But when it’s 95-96 miles an hour

and it’s got sink on it, even when you know it’s coming, it’s hard to really square it up. He’s a pretty special arm.”

Matuella (1-1) allowed just four hits and struck out seven in his outing, breezing through a Virginia Tech lineup that came into the day hitting .279 as a team. The righthander elevated his game to another level when the Hokies threatened to score, holding Virginia Tech (18-20, 7-14) hitless in eight atbats with runners in scoring position.

He received all the run support he would need from designated hitter David Perkins, whose sac fly in the second inning gave Duke (24-17, 12-9 in the ACC) a 1-0 lead.

Matuella—who lowered his ERA to 1.59— appeared as if he would toss his second complete game of the season before running into a bit of trouble in the ninth. He was lifted in favor of closer Robert Huber after yielding a See baseball, page 4

by Alex Serebransky The Chronicle

Quentin Tarantino could not have scripted a better Senior Day for Fred Saba.

Following a 4-3 win against No. 25 Wake Forest Friday, No. 14 DUKE 4 Duke pulled off a 5-2 3 come-from-behind WF upset of rival No. 8 2 North Carolina SunUNC DUKE 5 day at Ambler Tennis Stadium, clinching the No. 2 seed in this week’s ACC tournament.

“Impossible,” Saba said. “It can’t get any better than this.”

Despite the emotions of playing his last home match, Saba played an exceptional match, upsetting No. 30 Ronnie Schneider 7-5, 6-3 for the second time this season.

“He proved this time that [the first victory] wasn’t a fluke,” Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “Fred really stepped

up on his Senior Day.” The highlight for No. 46 Saba, Duke’s lone senior, came on the first point of his final game.

Schneider thought he had gotten off to an early lead when he whipped a ball down the line, but Saba surprisingly reached the ball and hit an improbable forehand return, curving it just inside the line to stun the Tar Heel freshman.

“Destiny just willed that ball in,” Saba said.

“That is probably the greatest shot I’ve ever hit on a tennis court. I had no idea I was going to get to the ball. I just put a good swing to it and hooked it around the court.”

Duke (18-5, 10-1 in the ACC) got off to a slow start against the Tar Heels (22-4, 9-2), dropping the doubles point and then falling into an 0-2 hole after Raphael Hemmeler was unable to fight off No. 63 Brett Clark, losing 1-6, 4-6.

But the Blue Devils would respond.

See M. Tennis, page 3

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2 | monDAY, APRIL 21, 2014

Women’s TEnnis

Road losses drop Duke to No. 5 seed for ACC tourney straight-set wins from No. 24 Goldfeld, redshirt junior Rachel Kahan and No. 35 Mar, the Blue Devils were just one point away from victory, with Capra and senior Marianne Jodoin in position to clinch it.

No. 5 Capra battled back after losing a tough opening tiebreak to roll in the second set. However, she faltered in the third set, falling 6-2 to No. 47 Yana Koroleva. With the match tied at 3-3, all eyes turned to court six.

Jodoin had claimed the first set in a tiebreaker and led 5-3 in the second. But despite facing two match points, Clemson’s Eidukonyte roared back, claiming 10 straight games to win the match 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-0.

“We definitely had a chance to win. We should’ve won the doubles and we let that slip,” Ashworth said. “It just happened to be Marianne on the last court. We just let [Clemson] hang around and hang around, and they started to believe they could win.”

Saturday at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex in Atlanta, the Blue Devils had an opportunity to salvage a road split against Georgia Tech (12-8, 9-5), albeit without the services of Goldfeld, who missed the match due to illness.

Ashworth mixed up the doubles squads, but the new pairings had little impact on the outcome. Mulholland and Mar, playing first doubles, fell 8-4 to Megan Kurey and Kendal Woodard, the fourth-ranked duo in the country. Kahan and Jodoin, teaming up at third doubles, dropped an 8-3 decision to Yellow Jackets Alexa Anton-Ohlmeyer and Rasheeda McAdoo that handed Georgia Tech the doubles point.

“Ester was sick, and we were trying to rest Chalena a little bit,” Ashworth said of the new lineup configurations.

“But the doubles today had nothing to do with our teams.

We came out so flat, and we just can’t do that. We’ve got to be better than that.”

For the second straight match, Duke was down 1-0 entering singles play. And yet again, that opening point

by Lucas Hubbard The Chronicle

The Blue Devils received no Southern hospitality on their weekend road trip.

Top-ranked Duke—perfect at home on the season— suffered consecutive 4-3 road defeats this weekend to Clemson and Georgia Tech, ending its 13-match winning streak and giving the Blue Devils a major wakeup call as they enter postseason play DUKE 3 this week.

“We’re at our best when we’re CLEM 4 engaged for three sets emotionally, DUKE 3 physically and mentally,” Duke head 4 coach Jamie Ashworth said. “And we GT weren’t that [Saturday]. I think we were knocked back a little bit from the loss Thursday.”

Thursday at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center, it was a toss-up affair from the get-go, with No. 17 Clemson (20-5, 12-2 in the ACC) edging the Blue Devils in the opening doubles point.

Junior Annie Mulholland and freshman Chalena Scholl, the 80th-ranked pair in the country, lost 8-4 to Clemson’s Jessy Romples and Joana Eidukonyte at third doubles.

Although senior Hanna Mar and sophomore Beatrice Capra—the No. 5 duo—pulled Duke even with a tiebreaker win at first doubles, the Blue Devils couldn’t pull through in the decisive match. Despite holding an early lead, the 22nd-ranked pair of junior Ester Goldfeld and freshman Alyssa Smith fell 8-7 (7-3) to Tigers Tristen Dewar and Beatrice Gumuly.

“When you play good players and good teams, you may only get one chance to end the point or end the game, and you’ve got to take advantage of that,” Ashworth said. “And we just didn’t do a good job of that.”

Still, Duke (21-3, 11-3) seemed to momentarily right the ship at singles, taking five of six opening sets. Scholl, after claiming the first set against No. 31 Romy Koelzer, dropped the next two sets to fall 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. But following

would prove to be the difference.

The Blue Devils did rebound somewhat, taking four of the six opening sets in singles. But instead of being on the verge of clinching the match, the Blue Devils found themselves losing 3-1 very quickly. Jodoin notched a point for Duke with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at sixth singles, but Scholl and No. 111 Smith fell in straight sets.

One point away from their second consecutive defeat, the Blue Devils attempted to climb the comeback trail. Mar rolled 6-0, 6-2 against Natasha Prokhnevsha at third singles, and Capra edged Woodard 6-2, 7-6 to put Duke back on level terms. Once again, it all came down to a single match, and once again, Duke came up short, this time without the drama of Thursday’s showdown. After Kahan claimed the first set, Muriel Wacker turned the fifth singles match around and stormed to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win.

“We’ve got to get better in three-set matches. I think we went 0-4 in three-set matches [this weekend],” Ashworth said.

“To me that’s a mental toughness thing and a conditioning thing. When the pressure was on us in the early-to-middle part of the year, we played really well. But this week when the pressure was on, I think we played with a little bit of fear.”

The losses to Clemson and Georgia Tech are especially crucial for seeding in the ACC tournament this week in Cary, N.C. Duke may have held the top seed had it won out this weekend, but instead will finish fifth in the conference and must play an additional round in the tournament.

On the bright side, the quick turnaround means that the Blue Devils may have a chance for revenge against one or both teams in the postseason. That is, if they can regain their mojo.

“We have to know that we can beat anybody in the country,” Ashworth said. “We have to get back and do those little things well, and figure out a way to simulate that pressure in practice.”

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M. TeNNIS

from page 1

final four holes to wrap up the victory and was ambushed on the 18th green by her teammates and assistant coach, who doused her with water after she holed her final putt.

“They love each other and they’re having a great time—that means a lot to me,” Brooks said. “We’ve had teams that won a lot and didn’t seem to really rejoice in the process of winning. This team, they love to win and they like to celebrate winning, and that’s great.”

Senior laetitia Beck was the only player who threatened Boutier’s lead Saturday. Starting the final round seven strokes back of her teammate, Beck used a four-under 31 on her opening nine to pull within three shots of Boutier. Bogeys on 13, 16 and 17 derailed Beck’s comeback effort, but the senior’s 68—the lowest round of the tournament—was enough to earn her a second place finish in her final conference championship. “overall i am happy with what i did today,” Beck said. “[i made a] few mistakes here and there—i’m a little frustrated with my finish. But i am very happy to see that i was able to make a lot of birdies because i haven’t done it in a while.”

Playing in their first ACC Championship, freshmen Sandy Choi and Yu liu notched two top-10 finishes at Sedgefield. Choi finished the weekend with a six-overpar total of 219 to claim fourth, and liu ended the weekend one stroke back to tie for fifth. liu has now gone eight consecutive tournaments without turning in a finish outside the top 10.

Alejandra Cangrejo ended Saturday tied for 19th, earning the senior her fourth career top-20 finish at the ACC Championship.

With Saturday’s victory, Boutier became the first Blue Devil to win three consecutive tournaments since Amanda Blumenhurst accomplished the feat during the 2007 season.

“The thing i like the most about Celine—where she is right now—is that she seems to be having a lot of fun out there,” Brooks said. “if she can get herself to have some fun, then she can go lower, and i think that’s happening.”

The Blue Devils’ ACC title is the program’s third straight and 19th in history, 18 of which have come with Brooks as head coach. Duke will now be looking to add to the school’s five national titles, starting with the nCAA regional Championship in three weeks.

“We’ve got to continue to do what we’ve been doing,” Brooks said. “We’re thinking big this year.”

THaNH-Ha NgUYeN/the chronicle

Sophomore Celine Boutier was the only golfer under par for the tournament, taking home her third consecutive individual title as Duke won its third straight ACC championship, beating runner-up Virginia by 27 strokes.

from page 1

Within two minutes of hemmeler’s loss, Saba wrapped up his match, and no. 86 Bruno Semenzato defeated oysten Steiro 6-4, 6-3 to tie the match at 2-2.

Duke took the lead with a win by freshman T.J. Pura at sixth singles, defeating nelson Vick 6-3, 6-3. The win marked the sixth consecutive singles win in ACC play for the energetic Pura.

But things still did not look good for the Blue Devils as both no. 36 Jason Tahir and Josh levine went down a break in their respective matches, and it looked like north Carolina was taking control. But then Duke caught a little bit of luck.

With Tahir down 1-2 against no. 10 Braydon Schnur, Schnur took too long to serve, and since he had already been warned, the freshman automatically lost a point. it was an unusual call that gave Tahir an advantage in the deuce. on the subsequent point, Tahir hit an acrobatic forehand winner down the line to seal the break and tie his match. “he got a warning after a changeover in the second

monDAY, APRIL 21, 2014 | 3

set,” Tahir said. “That was bizarre. That’s never happened to me before but obviously i’m glad it did happen. i’m not going to not take the point.“ The junior ended up winning the third set, defeating Schnur 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to clinch the victory for the Blue Devils.

Tahir, normally reserved on the court, couldn’t hold back his happiness, throwing his racket halfway across the court in a celebration that should have been familiar to the Tar heels.

“My freshman year when [north Carolina] won, the guy who clinched [the match] chucked his racket, so i guess that was an ode to him. he inspired me,” Tahir joked.

At fifth singles, levine was locked in a tight match of his own. Despite being down 3-5 at one point during his third set and battling cramps, he was able to fight back to defeat Jack Murray 5-7, 6-0, 7-6.

The victory was a signature win for Duke, which has now won eight straight matches heading into postseason play. “i couldn’t be prouder of the team,” Smith said. “it was one of the greatest matches i’ve ever been a part of.”

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Track

from page 1

event. Leading another Blue Devil sweep by 24 seconds, Beach earned 830 points with a time of 4:17.32 but could not pass his teammates on the leaderboard.

Rock and Rohner finished behind Hawkins for third and fourth place, respectively. Rohner solidified his victory with a time of 4:42.48 and 7,233 total points.

“It was an impressive performance by Robert, who was just a sprinter in high school,” Wilbourn said. “He’s learning all of these events and rapidly picking them up. I knew he was going to be really good. He’s wired for it.”

Rock earned the silver with 7,122 points and Beach the bronze with 6,997 points.

Duke claimed three more ACC titles throughout the course of the weekend.

Graduate student Juliet Bottorff became the first Blue Devil to win the 10,000 meters at the conference meet. Holding a steady pace behind Florida State’s Hannah Walker for the ma-

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jority of the race, Bottorff pulled away in the final 800 meters.

Crossing the line in 32:53.72, she set a new course record and bested Walker by nearly three seconds.

“It’s relieving,” Bottorff said. “It’s a lot of pressure. You haven’t won it until you’ve won. It feels really good to get it done and complete the triple-crown, winning my third ACC Championship. It just means a lot. I’m really excited about it.”

Bottorff returned to the track Saturday for the 5,000 meters but was unable to reel in Sarah Rapp of Virginia Tech, who jumped out to an early lead. Finishing in 16:15.82, Bottorff settled for the silver.

Freshman Haley Meier continued the success of the women’s distance program with a victory in the mile. Covering the first 800 meters conservatively, Meier picked up the pace in her final two laps, pulling ahead of a tightly-packed field with a 62-second final lap. She finished in a final time of 4:30.33, nearly seven-tenths of a second ahead of Elizabeth Whelan of North Carolina.

“I knew coming in here it would be a stacked field,”

Meier said. “I tried to get out strong and slow the race down at the beginning… When the last lap hit everyone started going. I composed myself, told myself, ‘Stay here, wait until the 200 and think like a sprinter,’ and then I tried to hold on, all the way to the line.”

Redshirt sophomore Thomas Lang claimed Duke’s final victory against a tight field in the javelin.

Sitting in third place behind Pittsburgh’s Ethan Shalaway and North Carolina’s Houston Summers before his final throw, Lang drew on the support of the crowd for a personal-best mark to close out the competition. His throw of 229 feet, 1 inch earned Lang the fourth ACC javelin title in school history.

Megan Clark also earned a spot on the podium with her third-place finish in the pole vault. The sophomore cleared 14 feet, 1/2 inches, putting her four inches behind champion Martina Schultze of Virginia Tech.

The Blue Devils finished fourth overall on both the men’s and women’s sides. The women earned a total of 77 points, and the men tallied 81 points.

baseball

from page 1

two-out single to second baseman Alex Perez that brought the go-ahead run to the plate. Huber came in and promptly shut the door by inducing a pop-up from right fielder Kyle Wernicki to record his seventh save of the season. “[Matuella] was only at about 96 pitches and he was feeling good, so we decided to send him out for the ninth,” Pollard said. “We were just going to take it at-bat by at-bat. [After giving up the single to Perez] he was at 114 pitches and it was time to go to Bob [Huber]. He was angry that I took him out of the game, but I’d be disappointed if he wasn’t angry.”

Sunday’s low-scoring win came a day after the Duke offense stole the show against the Hokies Saturday. The Blue Devils cruised to a 13-3 victory thanks to eight extra-base hits and six starters who racked up multiple hits. The Duke offense had struggled earlier in the season, but now appears to be finding its groove, pushing double-digit runs across the plate in three of its last five contests.

“Our guys are starting to round into form at the plate,” Pollard said. “We’re having better and better at-bats. We’ve talked a lot about the fact that we’ve pitched well enough and played good enough defense to go on a run and that when the offense gets going, we’re very capable of rattling off a good run.

We played pretty well in all three phases this weekend.”

The Blue Devils’ offensive explosion has come with one of the most important cogs in their lineup on the bench. Catcher Mike Rosenfeld—who serves as a team captain and had started each of the team’s first 37 games—has been sidelined all week with an injury, leaving a hole in the middle of the Duke lineup.

With junior Reed Anthes filling in behind the dish, the Blue Devils received contributions from players up and down the roster to make up for Rosenfeld’s missing production.

Shortstop Kenny Koplove—hitting just .198 on the season— knocked in the winning run in a 3-2 extra-inning victory Friday, scoring freshman Cris Perez, who moments earlier had blasted the first triple of his career to put himself in scoring position.

“What you saw was a lot of guys around [Rosenfeld] who really answered the call,” Pollard said. “Several guys had really good weekends offensively, and that’s what you do. It’s ‘Next man up’ as the old saying goes.”

Nicole Savage/Chronicle File Photo

Sophomore Michael Matuella stymied Virginia Tech hitters all afternoon, pitching 8.2 scoreless innings in Duke’s win.