40th Anniversary of Duke Women's Athletics

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Thank-you so much for coming out and supporting us against VCU this weekend! It’s difficult to compete with a men’s basketball game being scheduled at the same time so we are very grateful for your attendance and support.

40^th anniversary celebrations: As I’m sure you all know, Duke athletics was celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Duke women’s athletics this weekend. It was such a treat for all of us to get to know some of the older alumni as well as see some of our beloved familiar faces that graduated within the past few years. We all attended a dinner on Friday night where we got the chance to talk to the alumni. Additionally, some current and past athletes gave wonderful speeches where they reminisced on their experiences at Duke. This once again showed us how lucky we are to be part of DWT and how the friendships and support network that we form on our team will travel with us beyond Duke and hopefully in the future, we will also come together at these events and be able to look back fondly on our Duke experience.

DWT Tennis Clinic: Last Sunday, we hosted a very well received clinic for children between the ages of 7 and 15 from different tennis clubs in Durham. Initially, the clinic was intended to introduce The Girls Club mentoring program mentees to tennis and our team but unfortunately, they were unable to attend. However, we were pleased to host over 20 children! We played some really fun games throughout the morning with some “snack breaks” as a little boy labeled the breaks in between the games where everyone would run and grab a little treat from the assorted cookies, bars and snack packets that we had available for them. At the end of the fun-filled morning, each child went away with some form of Duke memorabilia in addition to what we hope is a fond memory of spending some time on court with us. All in all, this was a great event for the children and for us, and we hope to host one again in the near future!

This week, we travel to Notre Dame to play on Saturday at 3:30 PM! This should be a great match and we hope that you follow our results online.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT.

National Team Indoors: Finals Day

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Unfortunately, things did not go our way today against UCLA. However, the score definitely does not reflect the battle out there. The matches were all very close, with every girl fighting back and making UCLA work for it until the very end. With a few points here and there, the match could have easily gone our way.

After the match, Jamie emphasized that we should take this match as a learning experience and as a measure of what we are capable of achieving. We will have many more similar opportunities ahead of us to battle through and we will be better prepared the next time we’re in this position. As one would expect, we were not very happy chappies today but this tournament proved to us that we have the capabilities to be the best team out there, both on and off court.

Personally, I am really proud to be part of DWT. Having four freshmen on the team that have both the motivation and maturity to work this hard and support the team is a rarity and we have the privilege of having four such girls on this team. If nothing else, this tournament gave us the opportunity to learn a little more about ourselves and each other and it brought our DWT friendship circle even closer together— and at the end of the day, those are the memories that have a lasting impact.

For now, it is back to school and back to the books as we all have some catching up to do… Our next home match is against VCU on Saturday, February 25^th …. We hope you can all make it out to support us!

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT.

National Team Indoors: Day 3

Dear Wonderful Fans,

We’re in the finals of National Team Indoors!!!!! It is difficult to describe how excited and honored we feel to be in this position to play for the title tomorrow. Today’s match was a great show of DWT energy and support that Cal Berkeley had no answers to. We definitely hope to build on this tomorrow as we go into the battle for the title against UCLA… We’re looking to give it our best shot and leave everything out on the court.

Since it is Grammy Award night and we’re all glued to the TV screen, it’s only right that I talk about DWT music. Besides things such as gum and frozen yoghurt that are an essential part of DWT life, we are also very much into our music. Whether it is 6AM before a match or just before we go to bed, all the girls on this team enjoy a wide variety and genres of music. Our song of the tournament has been “The Champ” by Nelly. Marc has made it a ritual to play it just before and after our matches and it’s definitely an inspiration to us.

Here’s a selection of some of our current favorites. There’s something for everyone so download and ENJOY! :

Locker room song: Chicken Fried- Zac Brown Band

Annie: Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

Trice: Glad You Came- The Wanted

Moni T.: Collide- Leona Lewis and Avicci

Ester: Till I Collapse- Eminem

Hanna: All We Are-One Republic

Big Ray: I’m Shipping Up To Boston- Dropkick Murphys

Mary: Next to You- Chris Brown

Mo G.: Summer Girl-Leighton Meester

We play at 11AM tomorrow and just to remind you again, you can get our scores and updates on GoDuke.com.

GO DUKE!

Yours in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors: Day 2

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Day two of National Team Indoors down and DWT is up and rolling into the semifinals! The match today was a major improvement on yesterday with everyone really coming out with a ton of energy and getting the job done in an efficient manner, beating Michigan 4-0. I think everyone played with passion out there and we did a good job supporting each other, which made the playing a lot easier. As always, we wish you were here supporting us but we were treated to some parents in the stands today— Hanna’s, Ray’s and Trice’s parents were all here cheering and bringing the Duke loudness all the way to Charlottesville which was awesome to hear!

Some random DWT news: Each season, we have a team that is known for some sort of tradition or superstitious behavior. Past teams have had to eat the same breakfasts before matches, others need to listen to a specific playlist before matches, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a team that has been so attached to gum-chewing as this year’s team. Last night, I was surprised to find out that Mal, who always seems so calm and composed during the matches, uses gum as a way to steer superstition in our favor. Every time a person loses a game or seems to lose a couple of points, Mal chews a new piece of gum and throws the other one out, even if she’s only been chewing it for a couple of minutes. Needless to say, once the match is over, she has chewed up a whole pack of gum. Additionally, she only chews fruity gum during the day and mint gum in the evenings… I haven’t asked her whether this is also a superstitious ritual, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

While superstition might not be everyone’s reason for chewing gum, most of us go through at least a pack a day. Trice may be one of the most notorious gum chewers DWT has ever had. So when you come to our next match and you don’t have gum on you, we’ll probably have a stash in our pockets and we’re always willing to share!

Tomorrow, we play Cal Berkeley in the semifinal round. We’re very excited for this opportunity and we’re ready to bring our best game!

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors: Day 1

Dear Wonderful Fans,

The first day of the tournament was a tough battle but we came out on top, beating Ole Miss 4-3. We wish you had been here to enjoy the nail-biter because your cheering and support always helps us through and makes it more fun out there for us!

This morning, Jamie talked about how we are all here for the team and every individual is important to the success of the team. I think we definitely put this into practice on the court today and did a good job of battling, supporting and pushing through to the end. Even though the girls will agree with me when I say we all could have probably played better, I think that we definitely set the tone of striving to improve throughout the tournament and the support that we have for each other will be a defining factor as we move forward. With this, I want to refer to one of my favorite quotes— “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” We proved that we’re in this together today and we’re going to be even better at it tomorrow and let the results take care of themselves.

I’d like to draw special attention to Annie Mulholland who clinched the match for us today. Being a senior, I can tell you that being the last one out there in that atmosphere and having the responsibility of winning for your team is one of the toughest things to do. However, it is also one of the most satisfying and amazing feelings to achieve. Annie played her heart out there today and showed true leadership by the way she fought against a sporadic opponent and maintained her composure until the end. She’s a freshman but she showed that she’s going to fight for this team until the end. She might not always be successful but her efforts and her heart out there will be the things that the team appreciates more than any win.

Tomorrow we play our quarterfinal round against Michigan at noon... As always, we wish you were here but check GoDuke to follow our scores and I will keep you posted through this blog.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors Eve

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Thank-you so much for coming out and being so LOUD for us against Northwestern last Saturday. You made the battle so much more exciting and we really appreciate it! The time for National Team Indoors has finally arrived. We have been preparing for our first match against Ole Miss tomorrow at 9AM. This is the start to a great opportunity for us to play (and beat) the best teams in the nation and we definitely feel prepared for the fight. We had a good practice yesterday and this morning, focusing on getting used to playing on different courts as we have (fortunately) had consecutive weeks of playing on our home turf.

Tonight, we went to the introductory team banquet. This was one of the few opportunities to dress in non-tennis clothes, which always causes some excitement amongst a girl’s team. Needless to say, we had been discussing our outfits since early this week and made time to take some photos. The dinner was delicious! Hanna could tell you endless details about the Tiramisu, which was a total hit. After the introductory speeches and an overall pleasant evening, Marc drove us to a DWT sanctuary—Arch’s. Every year when we make a trip to Charlottesville we make a point to go to this wonderful place and enjoy some frozen yoghurt with “gooey brownie” topping. It has become a little bit of a team tradition and we were happy to introduce the freshmen to this deliciousness.

For now, we are off to bed and ready for an early start to an exciting day tomorrow. I will keep you posted on every day’s events and results so that you can all be with us in mind and support us all the way from Duke! Oh, and a big shout out to the Men’s Basketball team for beating UNC last night… we were all blooming with pride when it was mentioned at the banquet and we were happy to watch the game and

support the team on TV.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT