Clemson Men’s Tennis Falls To #3 Duke In ACC Title Match

April 22, 2001

ORLANDO, Fla.– The top-seeded Duke Blue Devils defeated the seventh-seeded Clemson Tigers 4-0 to win the 2001 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Tennis Championship at the Lake Cane Tennis Center in Orlando, Fla. on Sunday afternoon. The loss to the Blue Devils ended Clemson’s incredible four day run in a tournament in which the Tigers won three straight matches and reached the ACC Championship match for the first time since 1997. Two of Clemson’s wins in this year’s tournament were against the nationally ranked teams of North Carolina and Virginia.

Duke captured the doubles point with wins from the 17th-ranked team of Ramsey Smith and Phillip King over the Tigers’ Brad Emendorfer and Brad Emendorfer, Darren Knight, Lee Taylor Walker all competed in singles action for the Tigers. Walker posted a 3-0 singles record in the tournament while Knight finished the weekend’s action with an impressive 3-1 singles mark. Also turning in a strong performance for Clemson in the tournament was the doubles team of Goffi and Gojanovic who went 3-0 while playing all their matches in the No. 2 position.

The ACC Men’s Tennis Most Valuable Player was awarded to Ramsey Smith of Duke. With the win, Duke wins its fourth straight ACC Men’s Tennis Title and improves to 21-3 while Clemson drops to 8-20 with the loss. Clemson will now have to wait to see if they receive an at large bid for the upcoming NCAA Tournament which begins May 12.

Duke 4, Clemson 0

Singles No. 1 – Phillip King (DU) d. Josh Goffi 6-3, 7-5 No. 2 – Ramsey Smith (DU) d. Brad Emendorfer 6-3, 6-3 No. 3 – Marko Cerenko (DU) d. Darren Knight 6-1, 6-2 No. 4 – Andres Pedroso (DU) vs. Marko Gojanovic DNF No. 5 – Joel Spicher (DU) vs. Micah Thompson DNF No. 6 – Yorke Allen (DU) vs. Lee Taylor Walker DNF

Doubles No. 1 – Smith/King (DU) d. Emendorfer/Knight 8-1 No. 2 – Cerenko/Yani vs. Goffi/Gojanovic DNF No. 3 – Pedroso/Bose (DU) d. Cohn/Walker 8-6