Duke freshman Mallory Cecil took down junior Laura Vallverdu 7-5, 6-4 on Monday afternoon for the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship in College Station, Texas.
Cecil beat Vallverdu’s teammate and Miami’s top-ranked player, Julia Cohen, 6-1, 6-0 yesterday to reach the final.
It is the 14th time in NCAA history and first in ACC history that a women’s tennis player won both a team national title and individual crown in the same season, and the first to do so since 2004.
On May 17, the third-ranked Blue Devils beat sixth-ranked Miami 4-1 in a rematch of the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game at the Women’s Quarterfinals. Two days later Duke captured its first national championship by beating eighth-ranked California (4-0).