DURHAM, N.C. – The Blue Devils got off to a good start in the 2009 ACC season with a 5-2 victory over No. 42 N.C. State at home on Wednesday.

"It was good to start off the ACC season with a win,” said head coach Ramsey Smith. “It was a tight match from start to finish and N.C. State battled the entire time. I was particularly happy with how our two upperclassmen, Kiril (Dimitrov) and Dylan (Arnould), both rebounded from losing the first set and still found a way to win. They competed very well and played their best tennis towards the end when it really counted.”

Duke played their first outdoors home match of the year and improved to 8-3 with their fifth consecutive win. The Wolfpack fell to 7-7 overall with the loss. The Blue Devils have now won 36 straight meetings with N.C. State dating back to 1980.

“It was important to start off strong since we have so many matches in the next couple of weeks,” said junior Dylan Arnould. “It was essential to get a win with a big match against Florida State coming up. We had some good performances from a lot of our guys today.”

The Blue Devils used a tiebreaker win in the deciding doubles match to fuel the 5-2 win. Kiril Dimitrov and Alain Michel knocked off No. 79 Jaime Pulgar and Jay Weinacker at the top spot in doubles to give Duke the doubles point. This came after David Holland and Jared Pinsky tied the score at 1-1 with an 8-4 win over Justin Jendruch and Rob Lowe.

The middle of the singles order was strong again for Duke as they claimed wins at No. 2 through No. 5 in the order. Pinsky picked up his third straight win and is now 16-8 overall after winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Freshman Luke Marchese also won in straight sets, defeating David Chermak 6-3, 6-2 in just his second career dual match.

"Luke Marchese did an excellent job in stepping up today,” said Smith. “I love the intensity and energy that he brings to our team."

No. 58 Kiril Dimitrov earned a win in three sets over No. 96 Chris Welte 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Dimitrov has defeated eight ranked opponents this season and has a team-high 18 singles victories. Arnould clinched the win for Duke, turning his match around after losing 6-1 in the first set and winning 6-2, 6-2 in the next two. He is now 13-9 overall on the year.

Duke will be back in action at home on Friday when they host No. 14 Florida State at 3 p.m. at Ambler Tennis Stadium.