Discipline and Trust

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Unfortunately, our home match season has come to an end. I cannot express our gratitude for all you support this season. Seeing and hearing you all at our matches got us through thick and through thin and I can assure you that you made our jobs out there a lot easier. Having said that, we still have a long way to go this season. And this is where it gets exciting. Our wins against top ACC teams this past week have given us a great confidence boost as we move into our ACC tournament and NCAA tournament play after this weekend. Our ITA team ranking has moved to 3, making us the top ranked ACC school, Nadine Fahoum had amazing wins against both Clemson and Georgia Tech at the number 1 position making her ACC player of the week, and Big Ray is still at a cruising altitude of 22 consecutive wins. Needless to say, these achievements are something to be proud of. But our team very strongly recognizes that our goal still remains exactly the same as it was at the beginning of the semester: to become National Champions.

Yesterday, we had a team psychology session with Greg Dale, which reinforced our ultimate goals and mission of the season. Individual and team successes are very rewarding and very significant no matter how small or big they may seem. However, it is sometimes easy to immerse oneself in one’s successes and lose track of the thing that has been the driving factor from the get-go. I think that yesterday’s session really helped put everything in perspective. Earlier in the semester we spoke of our core values within the team: Trust, Team First, Discipline and Fight. At this point in the season we realize that it is important for us to reflect on these values and do our best to stay true to them for the team’s sake. Two blogs ago, I talked of the “Team First” aspect and I still maintain that our team is one of the most integrated there is. Right now, it is important for us to focus intently on the “Trust” and “Discipline” values that we discussed. “What can I do to contribute to this team’s success?”

It is no secret that our team for the most part suffers from a Facebook addiction. Within 2 hours after practice, you can rest assured that there will be some DWT Facebook activity. Of course this is a way for us to take a break from a very demanding life and communicate with people we do not have time to see on a daily basis. However (and here I speak for myself), Facebook has the tendency to consume and I know that I have been drawn into this on several occasions. Instead of finishing work in a timely manner to go to sleep early, I have stayed up late because of these types of distractions. As we move towards the demanding end of the semester academically and tennis-wise, eliminating these seemingly insignificant distractions will become the determining factor in how we fair. Additionally, it has become imperative that each of us takes the time and effort to take care of our bodies. Whether this means taking 5 minutes extra to stretch or go to the training room, we all realize that we need to be committed to this. It is all about staying disciplined and trusting that your teammates will do the same. By making these small sacrifices, we can each make the world of difference.

I am happy to announce that Reka and some other girls have placed a block on their Facebook during their study hours and I am limiting my “Facebook and distraction” time to once a day in an effort to get to bed earlier.

This week we leave to Florida for our last two ACC regular season matches:

On Friday at 5PM we play Miami and on Sunday at 12PM we play Florida State.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT