Duke University Team Page

The 16th-ranked Duke men’s tennis team will kick off its 2008 dual match season on Saturday at 6 p.m. when they host No. 53 Elon University in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

The Blue Devils have dominated the overall series between the two schools with wins in all five meetings. Last year Duke went into the match with the same ranking they have this season while Elon was ranked two spots higher than their current ranking. The Blue Devils swept the three doubles matches and won five of the six singles contests for a 6-1 victory.

Four current members of the Duke squad won their singles matches last season against the Phoenix. Kiril Dimitrov and Dylan Arnould, who were both ranked in singles at the time, won matches along with David Goulet and Aaron Carpenter. Elon’s No. 1 singles player, Damon Gooch, defeated Duke’s Joey Atas for the Phoenix’s only point of the day. Gooch comes into this year’s match as the only ranked player on the two teams at No. 72.

Dimitrov will lead the Blue Devils into the start of the season. Coming off a 3-0 performance at the Duke Invitational last weekend that landed him the tournament singles championship and ACC Player of the Week, he heads into the dual season with an 8-5 record in singles.

Freshman Reid Carleton leads Duke in wins with a 10-4 overall record in singles. Arnould, Carpenter and Alain Michel all have five wins on the year while Goulet has been impressive with a 4-1 record in singles.

The top doubles team for Duke is likely to be Goulet and Christopher Price. The duo has combined for a 5-3 overall record in doubles. Carleton and Dimitrov have played together in eight matches with a 4-4 record.

Beginning with the Elon match, the Blue Devils will play four home matches in eight days. They will welcome No. 71 Princeton to town on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. Then they will host No. 8 Illinois at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1 and No. 12 Notre Dame at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 3.