Aloha Duke Tennis Fans,
The last 72
hours have been a whirlwind to say the least! Our spring season officially
started on Friday at 10:30 with our first team practice of the year. After a
quick lunch and a trip to the bookstore to pick up our textbooks for the
impending semester, we had fitness with coach Howser followed by another team
practice. Though our first day of practice was hard, it was nothing to the task
that faced us later that night—packing. Knowing that our dorms wouldn’t be open
upon returning from winter break, we all haphazardly threw some warm-weather
clothes into spare suitcases and left them in the locker room. Though the
concept of packing for Hawaii should be simple (tennis clothes and bathing
suits) somehow it turned into a multiple hour affair that took much longer than
anticipated. The next morning’s alarm at 3:55am came painfully fast, but the
thought of Hawaii was more than enough motivation to drag our tired bodies out
of bed.
Eleven hours of flying time later,
which we filled with movies, Hanna’s rubiks cube and the game bejeweled, we
finally touched down in the beautiful Hawaii!!!! Once we collected all of our
stuff at baggage claim it was off to our gorgeous hotel on Waikiki Beach and a
quick dinner with the entire clan, which brings me to another exciting piece of
news. This week we are lucky enough to have two wonderful additions to our
team. The first is Greg Dale, our sport psychologist, who works with DWT as a
group as well as with some of us individually to help us be the most mentally
tough players out on the court. He is a vital role in our team’s success and
we’re all very excited to spend some time working with him this week as we look
to grow stronger as a team on and off the court. The second addition to our team
this week is the beautiful and talented Whitney Hills who also happens to be my
roommate—lucky me! Whitney is an amazing photographer who will keep everyone
updated with regular photos of both DWT and DMT.
After a much-needed night of sleep we
woke up to the beautiful view of Diamond Head Mountain and Waikiki beach. After
a quick breakfast at our hotel we all packed into a van, driven by a colorful
character, and headed over to Hanauma Bay Beach Park for some snorkeling. The
minute all 14 of us were finally pilled in, our driver proceeded to tell us
that his day job is selling and riding Harley Davison bikes—a comment which
prompted several confused looks. However
as the ride drew on, his list of jobs continued to grow as did our speculation
as to whether or not he was telling the truth. His resume ranged from fisherman
to shark wrangler to author to party cruise line owner. His stories provided us
with laughs for the rest of the day.
The snorkeling was a great relaxing
way to spend our first day in Hawaii. The people who worked at the beach warned
us not to step or touch the reef as an effort to preserve the environment. It
seemed pretty easy in concept, but once we got out into the water, we saw just
how close parts of the reef were to the surface which made avoiding it more
challenging than we originally thought.
However, with the reef so close to the surface we got to see lots of
colorful fish and even a couple turtles! It’s amazing how they will swim right
up to your face! After a couple hours of exploring the bay we had a quick team
meeting with Greg on the beach and then pilled back into the van to head back
to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon.
Over the course of the week each
one of us will write up a little something on that day’s events to keep you all
updated. I personally can’t wait to see what the rest of this week has in store
for us! As a parting note I want to take the time to thank the Hills family for
their continued support of Duke Women’s Tennis. Our program definitely wouldn’t
be where it is today without your family’s generous contributions! So, on
behalf of all of DWT, thank you so much for everything you guys do for us! We
are forever grateful! GO DUKE!
Aloha po (Goodnight)
Annie Mulholland and all of DWT
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