Quick Update!

Today was a great day for DWT! Reka won her back draw match up at the Indoor National tournament in New Haven, CT and we went 6-1 here at the Kitty Harris Invitational! Ellah and I started out the day winning our doubles match 8-3 vs. TCU. We followed up with two singles victories against our University of Florida opponents. Liz also played a girl from Florida, but came up short in a tough two setter. After a quick lunch break, we were back out on the court to match up against Georgia Tech. Liz had a very commanding victory against her opponent, while both Ellah and I battled back from down a set to win in three! 

Tomorrow is another big day of tennis! Doubles starts at 9am and singles will follow at 1.

GO DUKE! 

Fall Break in Tulsa, OK

Hey there all, been quite some time...

I'm currently in Tulsa, OK, for the All-American Championships. I'll be playing the qualifying (which starts tomorrow), along with Henrique (our extremely good and only freshmen this year). In total there are three of us here, but Reid is in the main draw, which starts Wednesday. It's a rather quiet feeling so far, with only the three of us and Ramsey here, very unlike typical Duke Tennis trips, and perhaps less amusing as well (alas, some of our more colorful comrades are not present to provide often odd and intriguing entertainment and stories).

We got here Saturday, and it seems per usual this year, where Duke Tennis goes, rain follows. However, we did manage to practice outside yesterday and today, so it hasn't been continually raining, and it's supposed to be fine for the rest of the week (fingers crossed). And

Anyway, Henrique will start off the tournament for us when he plays his first round qualifying match at 10am. I will follow with my match at 12pm. I'll try and keep this somewhat frequent and brief, but before I sign off, a couple mundane facts to help frame our conditions here in Tulsa.

Hotel: Courtyard by Marriot...Maybe 10 minutes from the Tulsa courts.
Dinners so far: Te Amo Italiano (very good), Macarroni Grill.
Interesting Fact: Our rental car (Chevy Malibu, white) is covered in bird feces, a consequence of one evening parked underneath a tree outside the hotel.
Odd Moment: Playful sarcasm from the hotel receptionist when asking for a wake-up call last night.
Travel Inconveniences: Minimal

Thanks for reading all,

Dylan

starting off the year...

This past weekend we had our first fall tournament of the season at Wake Forest! It was great to compete again with all the girls, and it was especially incredible to see Liz make her debut on the court for the first time in two years! She played really well, beat a ranked player, and has a lot of good things to build off of. Our new freshman, Monica (aka Mon Mon), also made her debut on the court with us and had a good tournament. She has been a great addition to the team and is extremely good natured. Both Ellah and Reka had a solid performance playing doubles together. The duo teamed up to get to the finals of the doubles draw, but lost a tough match to Illinois for first place. 

Although it was such a good feeling to be out on the court competing again, my favorite part of the weekend was just being with the team. It didn't matter what we were doing...driving in the car, dinners, breakfasts at 7am, watching TV together at night, quoting our favorite youtube videos...we were always laughing and had permanent smiles on our faces. It reminded me how much fun we have together and just how much I've missed team trips with the girls! 

We are all really looking forward to our next tournament, All Americans, out in California. Liz and Monica begin matches on Saturday in the pre-qualifying draw, I begin on Tuesday in the qualifying draw, and both Reka and Ellah will be starting play on Thursday in the main draw. Keep an eye out for results!! 

Until next time, GO DUKE! 

-Amanda

www.tennismd.com

Hello All,

It has been awhile since our last blog has gone up. We are going to try to make this a more frequent thing with some one-liner tips, health suggestions, interesting things we see on the recruiting trail, etc. Anything to keep the mind going and hooked on tennis.

So anyways, I am up in CT running a few camps this summer and just met a very nice guy who started this company online. I immediately thought about all of you. Check it out...

www.tennismd.com

That's right...

www.tennismd.com

This is an unbelievable site for all ages and levels. Have you ever had something tweaked on court but it wasn't severe enough to go see the doctor for? It happens all of the time. Figure out what you did, how to treat it, what doc to see and on and on! So check this out...TennisMD is the answer for everyone.

Here is a little info about them:

"TennisMD is the most comprehensive online Tennis health community – 100% dedicated to injury prevention and treatment specifically for Tennis. Through insightful articles, expert-hosted videos and an ever-growing community of Tennis players like you sharing information, TennisMD helps educate, enlighten and empower Tennis with solution-focused content.

We have assembled the Tennis industry’s leading health and fitness experts – each sharing valuable, practical advice to keep you playing injury-free. Their overall experience translates to your overall wellness."

I suggest you bookmark it and use it wisely!

Have fun and stay healthy.

J

PS:They also have a sportsMD.com and also a golfersMD.com

#5 Duke vs. #7 Georgia Tech

The Lady Blue Devils took the court today at noon playing against the Georgia Tech Yellow jackets. We started off with a clean sweep of the doubles with Reka and Ellah cruising to an 8-4 victory, followed by Jess and I. We won 8-2 Amanda and Melissa battled to take the final match winning in a tiebreaker. They won 87. We had our ten-minute break and quickly got ready to take the courts again. We knew that GT was going to come out firing in the singles so we knew we had to be prepared to stay out on the court as long as it was going to take. Finishing her match quickly, Melissa cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 playing beautifully to obtain her 100th match season victory! Congrats Melissa! So proud of you! Next was Reka to come off taking down her opponent 6-3, 6-0. Reka was so pumped and it was awesome to listen to her fire herself up after each point. So tough Reka! There were four matches left (me, Ellah, Amanda, and Jess) and they were all in third sets. I closed out my match winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. Awesome! We had officially beaten Georgia Tech! Shortly after, Amanda had retired from her match. It was Ellah and Jess left and they were both battling. Ellah lost 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, but she fought till the very end. She never gives up! Jess soon finished just barely losing as well. (3-6, 7-6, 3-6) Our last season match was finished, and we were victorious.
It is such an awesome feeling to finish our season on such a strong and positive note. I feel that we are definitely match tough and are ready to compete in ACC’s next weekend and NCAA’s shortly after. We are really fighting hard and are hungry to win. WE finished tied for 1st with University of Miami for the ACC Regular Season Champs, and have also been undefeated this season at home!! We have you, the fans, to thank for this. Ya’ll have been so amazing and have really helped pull us through in our tough matches. We are truly grateful and appreciate every single one of you for coming and supporting us. Again, ya’ll are awesome!!! Thank you!!
Today was also Senior Day ☹ This was Tara, Melissa, and Jess’s last season match. They were given beautiful flowers and a plaque. I have been truly honored and blessed to have gotten to know these three outstanding and unique ladies. I am sad that I have only gotten one semester with them, but I would take that over never getting to know them. Melissa and Jess have been awesome leaders through out this entire season and have been huge mentors for me. I will miss these girls terribly. I love you guys!!!
We start the ACC Tournament this Friday where we will be seeded 2. We are pumped and ready to play! It’s at the Cary Tennis Center if any of you would like to come out and watch. It will be a great weekend of tennis!
Until next time………. GO DUKE!!!!!!

Duke vs. Virginia Tech

Immediately following our thoroughly dominating win against Virginia, we had a quick turnaround and played Virginia Tech the next day at noon. Following the routine for our early matches, we had a nice little team breakfast to start of our day, and then hit the court to tear up the Hokies. It was a nice change from our last few matches, since we were actually at HOME, had some amazing fans out, AND had a sunny day. Truly, a very rare combination for us in the last few months. The doubles started off well, with all of us winning the 3 matches; AND, we actually managed to play some solid doubles on all 3 courts...looks like all the doubles drilling is paying off!

Singles was equally solid, and almost everyone won their matches without losing a set, except for Ellah, who struggled a bit with a combination of wrist issues, and her opponent having an out-of-body experience, which is never pleasant. But overall, we won 5 out of 6 singles, and swept the doubles point. Not bad, for a busy weekend! It was especially important for us to get a quick win, since we've been spending SO much time on the courts, and this week will be no different, when we take on Clemson and Georgia Tech back to back to finish out our regular season.

GO DUKE!!

-Reka

Home match: Virginia

Hi everyone!

So we played our first home match, after a long time, on Saturday. Starting with doubles, the teams of Mang and Granson won 8-4, Robinson and Cecil won 8-3, and Zsilinszka (did I spell that right?) and Nze won 8-6. With the 1-0 lead, we were off to a good start. The girls played great singles against a gritty Virginia to close out the match 7-0. Some people won easily, while others toughed it out. Mallory crushed Emily Fraser at no.1 singles 6-1, 6-0. Reka and Ellah played long three-setters and triumphed in the end. Amanda, Melissa, and Jess all won in straight sets.

Overall, we were happy with our performance, and look forward to playing more home matches. After that, hello ACCs! We are all gearing up to play the remainder of our season, and prepare for the national championships. I feel (watching from the stands) that not much can stop the girls from doing as well as they want to in the NCAAs. As of now, we hope to go all the way! So stay tuned in, for exciting results will follow.

Till next time,
Tara

DWT v. UNC

We traveled to UNC for our final away match for the spring. I am still out for the spring so I got to see most of the matches.  The doubles matches were really close on all three courts and although we lost the doubles point I feel as though the girls played fairly well.  We were all really excited to put the doubles matches behind us so we could get a fresh start on singles.  The girls knew that we were all better in singles all down the line up so we didn't stress the doubles losses too much.  We got a few games in until the matches were sent inside due to rain.  Most of the courts got off to really good starts.  I primarily watched Amanda, Melissa and Jess.  Melissa had an overall pretty easy match besides the sketchy line calls.  Amanda traded games with her opponent but fell short in the end.  Jess on the other hand started off slow but dominated in the second and third sets. I did not watch much of mallory's or ellah's matches but mallory absolutely killed UNC's number one and ellah lost in a tough one against their number 2.  This left the clinch up to Reka who entered a third set just as Jess finished her match.  It was really exciting to watch Reka close it out.  She got an early lead in the third and we knew she would be able to close it out when her opponent started cramping..thank god for Reka's long points.  

Although the score was close at 4-3 I never felt as though UNC had a chance to win.  I have so much confidence in my team because of their talent and the way they have been playing recently.  I would rather be playing but I am really excited to see us play some of the tougher teams in a couple weeks!

UVA

Well, we lost 4-3 to the undefeated, #1 ranked team in the country INDOORS. I guess we are supposed to be happy with that result. I mean, we were playing with an injured Carleton and without Wietoska and THE SCORE WAS 4-3 WITH THE #1 RANKED TEAM...INDOORS!!! I say INDOORS because UVA doesn't lose indoors. 

Should we be happy? That's a tough question. A lot of teams would be happy with this result and there is no fault in that. We took the doubles point (DP) from a team that has lost only 1 previous DP all year. They arguably have the best DP in the country and we took it from them with two of our doubles players sitting. Needless to say, we played well with the make-shift teams that we put out there. 

Overall, I think we realized how good we can be and how far we have come and it gave us a benchmark for where we need to go. We didn't know how close or how far we were from it. Now we know. We are getting closer but there is still a lot of work to be done.

So yes, I am happy about the match but I am not happy about the loss.

Some quick facts:

-We had wins over two of the top-ranked doubles teams in the country, #6 and #14.  

-Dylan Arnould beat the #20 ranked player in the country in straight sets (highest ranked win in dual season play by a Duke player). 

-David Holland stepped up and played his best match all year

-Best of all is that he didn't do anything special. He just realized that he was good enough and trusted himself.

Thanks for Reading!

 

Too Bad Terps

We just completed our last weekend of traveling before ncaas- sooooooooooooo happy!!! I think we were getting a little sick of planes, airports, hotels, and emailing teachers about having to miss more of their classes. Despite these minor issues, we had a wonderful weekend of tennis! We played Maryland on Friday afternoon, and the weather was nice so we were all very glad to be playing outside. I think we had the fastest doubles match I have ever seen in my four years! Amanda and I had the longest match and our score was 8-1. So, needless to say, we had a lot of momentum going into singles. The courts were split up, and I played in between Amanda and Jess, so I did not see what happened with Mallory, Ellah, and Reka, but by the speed and scores of their matches, I assume they played pretty well. Combined, they only lost 9 games. On my left, Amanda made quick work of her opponent and had the support of her family and friends who were able to come watch. On my right, Jess, who also had her dad and aunt behind her, played a few close games in the first set but then pulled away in the second and finished the day up with a nice victory. My match went pretty smoothly and I won 6-1, 6-2. 

I think it was important for us to go out there with a lot of intensity and drive to play like we know we can play, so that we have the confidence needed for the remainder of our season. We have some tough acc matches coming up, so this weekend was great for us to build off of. If anyone is reading this, please come support us this weekend and next weekend for our first acc home matches!!! 

Until next time...

DWT! LET'S GO DUKE!

Down with the Terps

            Finally, a break in the weather gave us the chance to play at least part of a dual match on the outdoor courts of Ambler Tennis Stadium.  We came in somewhat banged up for our last regular season home match of the year.  Torsten is still nursing his knee injury, Kiril wasn’t able to play after falling on his wrist yesterday against Boston College, and Reid had to fight through an seriously aching back to get through doubles and singles. 

            We started off decently in the doubles, with a pretty unfamiliar set of teams at two and three, Reid and I being the only intact team from our previous matches.  We started off well, with Reid and I getting off to a very good start, and Carp and Al also getting off to a quick start.  But things started deteriorating rather quickly, with Al and Carp trying to stave off their Terrapin adversaries, and Holland and Pinsky having to pull through some tight games to finally clinch it and put us up 1-0 heading into singles.

            Singles wasn’t all too simple an affair either.  We had a couple fast starts with Reid and I taking quick first sets, but Maryland kept at us until the very end.  I was able to put my match away before the rain forced us inside, but then a serious concern arose when Reid seemed to have even more seriously injured his back when he was up a set and 4-1.  After getting some treatment from the trainer he toughed it out indoors to run off two more games for a 6-0, 6-2 victory, though not without a few grimaces of pain.  We then dropped our first singles match, putting the score at 3-1 with three matches still on court.  It got particularly tense when I looked at the scoreboard and we were losing on one of the courts of the three courts, and at the start of a third set on the other two…

            Fortunately things worked out, but it wasn’t easy.  Luke got yet another consecutive victory, and Holland gutted out a tight third setter to bring the overall score to 5-2.  It was good that we got the win, but it didn’t come without some hiccups and few things we need to get better with.  With UNC on our plate Tuesday, we’ll need to be all there in every possible way.  But hey, we got the W, and at the end of the day, that’s what counts.  You still learn when you win in spite of a sub-optimum performance, but it’s a lot less painful and less sleep inhibiting.  But credit also goes to Maryland, as they gave us all we could handle and they deserve recognition for it.  UNC, then UVA, then Virginia Tech…It’s going to be a long week ahead, but hopefully a very gratifying one as well.  Thanks for reading, and thanks for all your support, we hope to have some great news to write about after this week.

Dylan Arnould

I’ve spent the last two years losing to Wake Forest.  My freshmen year we lost at home, and then last year we lost a 4-3 match at their facility (which only has five courts instead of six, don’t even get me started on that).  Even so, this time was probably the worst start I’ve ever had against them as a team.  We got flattened in doubles in what seemed like five minutes.  They won 8-1, 8-3, and 8-4.  They must have thought they were going to roll over us in no time at all. 

 

Now fast forward about an hour and a half, and Duke has already clinched the match with Luke’s last point, only right after Reid just served out his match.  It was one of the fastest dual matches of the year for us (even though it did end 4-3).  What happened? Why after thirty minutes into the singles matches was Wake suddenly scrambling to regain even a whisper of the momentum that they had a stranglehold on just a half hour before?

           

I’m going to hold off on the details of all that transpired, but I’ll just say that the way we came out of the locker room was something that Wake had never seen from us before, and I’m not even sure we’d seen it yet this year from ourselves.  It was quick, it was fun, and it was damn gratifying to finally be able to send the Demon Deacons packing, hopefully not for the last time.

Luke "Ron Burgundy" Marchese

Yesterday the Duke men’s tennis team earned undoubtedly its most satisfying victory of the season. Coming off two hard fought ACC losses in our own house, it was quite clear that the outcome of this match would depend on sheer will. And after the doubles point, it appeared as if our ACC woes would continue. We were absolutely outhustled and outplayed for the point, leaving the entire team feeling lost and dejected going into the intermission. But an inspirational locker room meeting led by some of our seasoned veterans was all it took to fuel our most inspired performance of the season. And an hour and forty minutes later, the win was clinched. In the words of the great Herb Nebauer, “A.D.V... Another Duke Victory.” Now we are looking forward to these weekend’s home contests against Boston College and Maryland.

Stay Classy Duke Fans,

Luke

Coach's Corner - Wake Forest

Hello All,

First off, sorry for not having any blogs posted as of late. There should be quite a few coming around in the next couple of days.

Wake Forest- For any of you that were there, that was by far our worst doubles of the year. It was horrible, flat, lack-luster, heartless, gutless, and many more adjectives that I cannot express in this PG-rated blog. So what do you do as a coach at that point to get your team back on track? 

Well, before going into the locker room to meet with the guys prior to singles, Ramsey (fuming with smoke coming out of his ears) came over to me.

He asked, "So how do we deal with this?" 

My answer wasn't exactly how but more what we needed to see from the guys, "We need to have the guys get behind one another right now. They need to do this for themselves but more importantly for each other. There needs to be a reason to win this match." 

He responded, "Good. I agree. I only have one thing to say and them I'm out of there." 

Ramsey and I proceeded to walk into the locker room and saw the boys with their heads in their hands with an expectant look that they were going to be "lit up". After about a minute of silence, Ramsey, KJ and I spoke only a few words and then left. Whether it was the message or how concise it was (who knows? maybe both) the boys rallied behind each other. They decided to take it upon themselves to win the match.  They came out of the locker room with the eyes of inspired warriors, all 10 of them. 

When I saw them, I told KJ that we were going to be just fine. Ramsey and I chose not to go on the courts until the latter parts of the first sets. We wanted the boys to win it on their own to show them that it is all about them and how they prepare mentally for these matches. The best part of it all was that it wasn't only won by the guys on the courts, it was won by all 10 of them. 

Luke said it best about Carp and the boys upstairs,  "You gave me an edge that was huge. I felt like it was 2 on 1. It was the first time in my tennis career that I felt that unconditional support that I came to college for." 

So all in all, the team made a huge jump yesterday. Not in the level of their games, but as a team and that's what wins championships. It was great to see and so much fun to be a part of. 

Thanks for all of the support.

Miami

Sunday was a hard fought day for the Lady Blue Devils. Under the scorching noon sun we began our battle against the Miami Hurricanes. Jess and I started off slow in our doubles match and were too far down when we began our hard fought comeback. We lost 8-5. Whose match went fairly similar to ours and next to finish was Melissa and Amanda losing 8-4. Reka and Ellah pulled their match out with an 8-6 victory, but unfortunately we had already lost the doubles point. We take our ten minute break to reapply sunscreen and get pumped up for singles. We have been down 1-0 before going into singles and have been victorious in the end. We know that we are going to have to deal with more than just the sun and wind today. Miami has very obnoxious fans who really get into the matches. We are all mentally prepared for any distractions that might come our way and know that we just need to focus on what we can control in our matches. (attitude, fight, composure, etc) Well, I am not proud to say that I was the first one off the court losing 6-3, 6-3 to fellow junior competitor, Julia Cohen. Not one of my finer and entertaining matches. Though soon after Jess came off the court with a beautiful 6-1, 6-3 victory over the girl who had defeated her in the deciding match last year. Way to be mentally tough Jess!!! Next off was Melissa who played aggressive to come up with a 6-3, 6-4 win to tie the score at 2-2. Our last three matches are close with Ellah, Amanda, and Reka. Ellah had a tough match, but fought till the end, before barely losing 7-6, 6-4. Her opponent was very obnoxious and fed off the crowd for her intensity. Ok, so now we are down 2-3 with 2 matches left to go. Amanda had won a hard fought first set 6-4 after coming back from being 3-0 down. Though she lost the second set 6-0, the third set was a battle. Amanda fought till the very end but fell just short of the winners circle losing the thrid set 7-5. That had been the deciding match. Duke had lost 4-2 to Miami, but Reka was still battling it out on her court. After winning her first set 6-4, she lost her second fairly quickly 6-1. We weren't worried though because we all know that Reka will stay out on the court all day if that's what it takes for her to win. She played her heart out but was defeated 7-6 (7-5) in the deciding set tiebreaker. 5-2 Hurricanes. :( It was a very disappointing and unsatisfying day for us, but we learned from our matches and know what we need to improve to gain revenge at our next Hurricane encounter. We are headed off to play NC State on Wednesday, where we are fired up to continue our ACC matches!!! We have quite a stretch of matches to come, but we are hungry to win and are ready to put our losses behind us.

Let's go Duke!!!!!

Mal

Let the ACC matches BEGIN: Florida State

Aaaaaannnd here we go: the crazy schedule has officially begun. ACC season has started. To kick it all off, we travelled to Florida, namely Tallahassee, to take on the Florida State Seminoles. This time of year is never easy...the classes missed start to rack up, and the grumblings of unhappy professors do not help the stress levels, but, for those few crucial hours of our matches, we can put academics aside, and focus JUST on tennis. Today, our match was scheduled for 4 PM, even though it said  3 PM on our schedule for some reason (JAMIE!!!), which meant a looong day. After a hefty breakfast as usual for me (I will spare the description of the epic amount of food consumed) we hit the courts at 10:45 for a short warm-up, so we wouldn't be sitting around all day. Then we paid a visit to our favorite ever-present sandwich shop, Jimmy John's, whose reliable sandwiches we simply cannot have enough of... although lately, Jersey Mike has been giving Jimmy a run for his money in terms of team popularity...

After lunch, we went back to the court for our ACTUAL warm-up, which was actually quite uneventful, and went smoothly as usual. And THEN the matches began. Florida State is historically always a tough team, and is one of those awful places to play; the crowd jeers and screams, and most of the players get super-pumped and start yelling all sorts of strange things into your face. Thus, it was very helpful when we won the doubles point, with our clutch duos of Jess/Mal and Melis/Amanda emerging victorious to clinch our doubles. Elz and I had a little mini-comeback but ended up not winning in the end, but at least made them SWEAT REALLY REALLY hard to beat us. So, overall, we went into the singles on a good note.

The singles was hard-fought on each court, and we ended victoriously on most courts...Amanda was an absolute beast, beating her opponent in approximately 7 seconds, and putting us ahead 2-0 in the match. Jess was next to finish, losing a tough match to a strong opponent. I didn't get to see any of her match, but in the one point I saw, Jess smacked an overhead winner, which was ridiculously huge, and inspired me to win the next game in my own match, which made me the 3rd match to finish. I was SO happy to win because my opponent had this whole CROWD watching her, and they literally bellowed every time she won a point...which was fine, until they started screaming for my double faults, which I thought was a little much. Ellah, my roomate/doubles partner/fellow sophomore was the clincher, beating her French freshman in straight sets, and improving her spring record to an UNDEFEATED 12-0. Get it girl, get it get it girlll!! The last two matches to finish were Melis (in straight) and Mal (in three sets), who both had annoyingly streaky opponents, making it difficult to get a rhythm, but they both pulled it out, to give us on overall 6-1 win. Not a bad way to start out the ACC matches!

Till next time...LET'S GO DUKE!!!

-Reka

Notre Dame

Thursday was a tough day for Duke Women's Tennis. We lost to Notre Dame 5-2. Prior to this we had only one loss this season to Northwestern at the National Indoors. We had been doing extremely well and quickly rising to the number three national ranking, the highest ranking our team has achieved for quite some time. Presently, we are on spring break and have been practicing all week for this match up against the Irish, who are right behind us as the number four ranked team. I felt our team was intense during our practices and was ready to compete. We focused intensely on doubles drills because capturing the doubles point in a dual match is crucial to the momentum needed for the singles matches. Fortunately, we were able to win the doubles point. Jess and Mal played great and won their match at #2 , scoring 8-5, before Reka and I clinched it with a score of 8-6 at #3. Singles, however, was not as successful as doubles; we lost five of our six singles matches. I was first off the court winning my match 6-2, 6-2. I felt I played well and was relieved to be off the court quickly. After I got off the court, I was able to watch and cheer for my teammates, who collectively were in close matches on every court. Even though our team did not come out on top, everyone fought until the last point and gave it their best effort. I think in this situation, we just have to give Notre Dame credit because after losing the doubles point, they were fired up and simply outplayed us. Although we were all very disappointed with the loss, it is not the end for our team. We are a resilient group of players and will be back on the road this coming Thursday, traveling back to Florida to begin ACC matches against Florida State and University of Miami. Upon completion of this Thursday's matches, everyone got a little break: some going home, others visiting Disney to relax and enjoy the remainder of spring break. Today we return to the court to begin practice and rebound from our upset. A couple of days of rest, practice and fine tuning a few areas in our game, will provide us with the energy and tools needed to compete this weekend. Thanks for reading about our spring break competition.

Revenge!!

WE BEAT NORTHWESTERN!!!!!! Traveling up to Chicago to play the #1 team in the country, we knew that this was our shot to redeem ourselves from National Indoors and we did! It was probably one of the most exciting matches that I have ever been apart of.

We started off by losing a hard fought doubles point. Although Reka and Ellah crushed their opponents at the #3 spot, both Melissa and me, along with Jess and Mallory, had a tougher time of it and lost our matches 8-6. Despite this early setback, none of us were discouraged. We know that we are a tough group to face in singles, and went out after the break very fired up.

Taking the lead in most of the singles matches from the very beginning, we started off well and took 4 of the 6 first sets down the line up. Ellah and Reka effortlessly cruised through their first sets while Melissa and Mallory battled it out and also came out on top. Both Jess and I lost our first sets, but did not let this get us down.

Melissa ended up finishing first with a very convincing 6-2 score in her second set. Jess and I ended up finishing only seconds after each other, but unfortunately we were not victorious. Down 3-1, it was up to the final three players, Reka, Ellah, and Mallory to finish out the match. Quickly after Jess and I finished, Reka won her match to put the score at 3-2. Both Mal and Ellah lost their second sets, but battled it out for their third sets and came out on top! They finished only a minute apart with Mallory winning her third set 7-5 and Ellah winning her third set 7-6. We went nuts!!! Those of us on the sidelines were screaming so loud that we definitely rivaled the 100 spectators in the crowd. It was an incredible feeling to beat this team and I am so proud of how everyone played and competed today. There was a lot of heart shown from all the girls. This win proves that we have what it takes to be #1 in the country!

To celebrate, Jamie took us to Ruth Chris Steakhouse! I speak for the entire time team in saying that it was one of the best meals that we have ever had. The steaks were INCREDIBLE and all of us left the restaurant with full stomachs :)

YEAH DUKE!!!!

Until next time....

-Amanda

Texas A&M

Hi everyone!

Yesterday we played Texas A&M. The day started with a team breakfast at Nash's. Reka again unsurprised everyone by consuming three giant chocolate pancakes with syrup and butter, and what she called a soup bowl of hot chocolate! So our day was off to an auspicious start.

We were especially pumped becuase it was senior Jess's birthday yesterday. We love Jess and were excited to celebrate with her. As we always do, we spent quality time in the locker room before beginning practice. I sneaked in some knee rehab as I had arthroscopy and a lateral release about 10 days ago. It was also Family Day yesterday and we eagerly anticipated a large crowd. And you guys came :)! As did our favorite Blue Devil mascot. He pranced around, lifting our spirits even higher. So, the match began.

Melissa and Amanda, at No. 1 doubles, played great tennis to crush their opponents 8-3. Our No. 2 and No.3 doubles were a little more dicey. Jess and Mallory came back from from the dead to take the match 9-8, and 7-0 in the tiebreak. Reka and Ellah battled hard to win 8-6 and came up with some gutsy shots in tight situations. Duke = 1, Texam A&M = 0.

Watching from the stands, I was impressed by the way our team handled the singles. One by one, the Duke girls dismantled their opponents and didn't give them a chance. Melissa's mesmerizing forehand, Reka's revitalizing volleys (!!), Mallory's menacing backhand, Ellah's elegant footwork, Amanda's amazing second serve, and Jess's gentle hands (at the net) were all a treat to watch! We won 6-1!

This was a great win since Texas A&M is very good, and the girls still shutout their opponents in a focused, determined way. Helped by our fans... and our very own ubiquitous Crazy Towel Guy. When we returned to the locker room, tired but happy, we found two boxes of chocolate and buttercream cupcakes made by our assistant coach, Kelly. She had made them for Jess's birthday, but obviously we felt the need to help Jess out ;)! They were absolutely delicious. Thanks Kelly!

We hope that you enjoyed the match yesterday. Thank you all for coming, and for supporting us.

Cheers,
Tara

Lighting that FIRE!!

So our trip to National Indoors was pretty successful. We had some ups and downs but we learned a lot and really came together as a team. We had an easy win over Wisconsin 7-0 which was a great start. The courts were really fast, so it took some adjustments from everyone, (some struggled more than others (me)), but after that match we were really fired up for our chance to take on the #1 team in the nation- Northwestern. We got down pretty quick in doubles which was unlike us, but we did a great job of evening things out in the first few singles matches. Everyone battled really hard and before I knew it, I was starting my third set and the score was tied at 3-3. It didn't end well. I lost 7-5 in the third but my team was very supportive and understanding. We were determined to come out the next day with fire and purpose and we took down #4 Baylor, with Ellah closing out a tough third set to give us the W. 

The trip really made us believe that we are one of the best teams in the nation and that we can take down anyone. I just can't wait until two weeks from now when we get another shot at Northwestern. Losing a close match like that gives you a certain toughness and desire to win that you can't get anywhere else. I am so confident in my team and hopefully they will be confident in me if I ever get the opportunity again to close out a match for us. Stay tuned because we this team this season is going all the way!!!

Be back soon...

Melissa

Shutout #2 (7-0)

Today at 12 o'clock we took the court to begin our doubles matches against Princeton University. We knew that this was not going to be an easy match and that we needed to be on fire from the very beginning. Ellah and Reka cruised through their match with an 8-0 victory in about half an hour. Next to finish was me and Jess, winning 8-1. Then, we walked over and got to watch Amanda and Melissa take down Princeton's number 1 team. They played extrememly solid and their volleys are a thing of beauty to watch. They compliment each other's games very well on the court.

We are now up to a 1-0 lead and we get our ten minute break between singles and doubles. We all go to the locker room to refuel and refocused for our upcoming singles matches. We knew that these singles matches were going to be no easy task. Jamie's quote for the day was, "Opportunity is disguised as hard work, which is why it is usually missed." (something like that) Our goal was to not let them have a chance to gain momentum. We had done exceptionally well with that in the doubles and we were determined to carry that over into our singles. We walked onto the court and did our usual chant and were fired up and ready to play!

First to finish was Melissa winning 61 60. Everytime I looked over she was either hitting a beutiful putaway volley or a big groundstroke winner. She was on fire! I finished next with a 62 61 win. My main focus was just to have big targets and really pull her off the court in order to work my way into the net. I was happy with how I played and was excited to watch my others teammates successfully close out their matches.

Jess's match was more of a mental match today. She breezed through her match winning 61 62, but this was no easy feat. The girl she was playing, Blakely Ashley, had been a long time opponent of Jess. They were from the same section and had played one another a lot through out juniors. There is a certain personal pressure that is added when you are faced in one of these situation. Jess handled it beautifully though. Those matches are more self-rewarding than playing someone you know nothing about. Proud of you Jess!

Reka closed out her match with a 64 60 victory. The points that I was watching in her first set seemed to be a battle. The girl was hanging right there with her and was not giving her many free points. However, once Reka captured that first set it was smooth sailing from there. The girl lost her aggressiveness and started going for too much. Reka breezed through the next set fairly quickly.

The last two matches left were Ellah and Amanda. These both went into third set tiebreakers and were very entertaining to watch. Ellah had lost the first set 61. The girl she was playing was just not missing and hitting a lot of winners. However, Ellah didn't panic and just fought her way back quickly to win the second set 61. From there it was all downhill. She cruised through the tiebraker winning it 10 1.

Amanda was the last one left. She had won the first set 64 and fought hard through the second just barely losing it 63. On to another tiebreaker. It was extremely close all the way through and the crowd was really getting into it. Amanda and her opponent were fighting for every ball and going for all their shots. It was quite thrilling to watch, and was so sweet when Amanda closed it out winning the breaker 13-11. That was close!

That completed our 7-0 victory over Princeton!

Those who do not know I am the new "freshy" on the team since just arriving this January. I cannot express how blessed I feel to be able to play and compete with these awesome girls. They have fight and are hungry to win. Every time we step out on the court we go with a purpose. I am honored to be apart of this team and represent Duke. We enjoy what we do, and we hope all of you enjoy watching. Thanks for all of your support. It really means a lot to us.
Until next time.......

Mallory Cecil

Shutout...7-0

Yesterday afternoon we played Indiana University. I remember travelling to Bloomington last year and having a tough match against them. Last year, we beat them 6-1 but I recall the scores being close across all courts. Yesterday was different. Before every home match, Jamie writes a quote on the board in the locker room for everyone to read. The quote is the first message we see as we walk into the room. Yesterday's message was, "If you don't make things happen, things will happen to you." When discussing this quote, Jamie stressed the importance of each player being aggressive from the first point and gaining the momentum early on in the match. His words definitely stuck because we were back in the locker room within 30 minutes discussing tactics for singles! Jess and Mallory dominated on court 2, winning 8-0. Reka and I finished within minutes of them on court 3 with a score of 8-1, to clinch the doubles point. Melissa and Amanda were on the court a little bit longer, eventually pulling through 8-3. They played the same team last year and went to a tiebreak, but yesterday they wasted no time getting an early lead and holding on to it.

Singles for the most part was not much different from the doubles. While I was trying to focus on my match, every time I looked up at the scoreboard everyone was in command of their first set. One person in particular, Jess, was steam rolling through her match. When I sat down on the bench at 2-1, I looked up and saw she was already up 4-0!!! With that said, she was the first one off the court coming away with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. I finished shortly after her, winning 6-1, 6-1. My opponent was a decent player and had not yet lost a match this season. Thus, I went on the court taking Jamie's advice, and made things happen. I felt I played aggressively from the start, which carried over through the entire match. I was happy with the way I played and to be off the court quickly. As soon as I finished, I wasn't surprised to see Reka up 6-1, 5-0. She has a knack for frustrating players with her style of play, and most players are dumb founded after the first few games, giving up easily. Hey, no complaints here!! A win is a win.

Mallory had a close one on the court next to me, but the combination of some good defensive skills and big forehands on decisive points proved to be too much for her opponent and she won 6-4. Taking the momentum from the first set, she held on to her lead and won the second set 6-3. Melissa and Amanda were in control their first sets, but had close second sets which is to be expected. Usually when you win the first set decisively, your opponent changes their game plan to fight back. But in the end, both of them demonstrated why they are a part of the 9th ranked team and closed out their respective matches in two sets. Overall, everyone was happy to have won all their matches and have an early night. We play Princeton tomorrow at 12pm. Thanks to everyone for their continuous support. GO DUKE!!

Dylan Arnould- ITA Indoor wrap-up

2:00pm. That was the original start time for our match Sunday against Penn State, after coming off our rough loss to Florida State on Saturday.  3:00pm is when we actually started, and 7:35pm was our scheduled flight out of State College Airport.  Damn Oklahoma State was being a pest and fighting back against FSU and keeping us from starting our match in the four court Penn State facility (which Ramsey plans to complain to the ITA about…I mean, four courts for a dual match in a national tournament?).  Anyway, all was well because we managed to clinch a 4-0 victory by about 5:45p, leaving ample time for us to shower and get to the airport in time for our flight (which is good since there are only like 3 flights a day in and out of the State College Airport and ours was the last one of the day).

As for the match, well, I’ll go so far as to offer some picture of what happened.  In doubles, Kiril and Al played another solid match and knocked off the number one Penn State team, despite one of their opponents’ persistent grunts about the lucky and fluky shots that Al and Kiril kept hitting, which in actuality were probably pretty typical shots for them.  At number two Reid and I played arguably our best match of the season, cleaning up 8-3, including a bizarre shank overhead that I was incredibly lucky to make on break point against us (especially since it came after 2 or 3 complete duff volleys in a row).  Torsten and Holland were down 7-2 but fought back the 7-6 when the match was then stopped since we had clinched the doubles point 2-0 (in this tournament format they were stopping all doubles play once the point was decided).

  Singles wise, it was a good day.  Kiril played awesome at line two even though he was sick the whole weekend.  Reid won two pretty close sets to knock off his big serving but erratic opponent, who was quite entertaining to watch with his bizarre attitude and colorful reactions to any good shots Reid hit (as if Reid should not be allowed to hit any good shots…How does he think Reid got to be ranked so high in the first place?).  Anyway, Jared fought through to win in straight sets as well, pulling out quite a few close games and showing some inspiring flare.  Reid’s win gave us the 4-0 win, and with our flight less than 2 hours from departure, my match was stopped midway through the second set, along with Torsten and Holland’s matches that had only just gotten underway (a consequence of there only being four courts…)

And yes, we missed most of the Superbowl, but we did catch some of the second half in the airport, until we had to board our flight and missed the last few minutes of the game…Not like we missed anything interesting though, I mean what actually happened after it was 20-14 Pittsburgh late in the 4th?

Quotes of the Trip:

I want to take the opportunity to offer some of the best quotes from this weekend, spoken by some of the truly unique characters on our team.  I will leave the quotes anonymous, but I think they can help give a glimpse of some of the humor that was pervasive during our travels this past weekend.

“Hey, name five countries in South America”  Response: “Brazil, Argentina, Portugal……”

“Do you want me to get you a cookie?  I’ll go get you a cookie.  I don’t want a cookie, but I’ll go get one for you, ok?”

Dining Highlights:

Foccia Luna in State College right down the street from the Courtyard Marriot where we were staying.  Highly recommended,  great pizza, the salmon was quite a hit as well.

Dining Low Point:

Ruby Tuesday’s.  I know it’s harsh to say, but in comparison to any similar chain restaurants (Chili’s, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Outback) it’s really lacking.  Do they really need to just add like 4 lbs of cheese or butter to every dish, and even then it still doesn’t taste good?

Best Bonding Location: 

The hotel hot tub.  I wasn’t too keen on it so I didn’t actually go, but that was the place if you were soul searching, or so I heard.

Trip Theme:

Emergen-C fizzing drink mix.  Whether you were one of the sick people on the trip or not, you were likely having at least 2 packets of Emergen-C per day, with some people having upwards of 6 or 7.  32 Vitamins and Minerals, you going to argue against that?

We leave on Thursday to play Illinois on Friday night, and then on to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish on Sunday.  They are going to be battles, but I have a good feeling about them, and we owe both of these teams some revenge from the last two years.  Wish us luck, and thanks for your reading and keeping up with our progress throughout the year.

Until next time,

Dylan Arnould

 

 

 

We're Going to Madison!

For the first time in two years Duke Women's tennis is heading to Madison, Wisconsin as one of sixteen teams to make it to the National Indoor tournament! We are so excited! This is a great opportunity to play against the best teams in the country and we are definitely up to the challenge :)

Today's match was a successful one against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Despite some unforeseen challenges that arose with my being sick with food poisoning and Tara's nagging knee injuries, we were able to make it through the day. Doubles started off with a bang with Reka and Ella winning a promising match against a tough #3 team. It definitely gave both Melissa and me a boost of confidence to see our two underclassman playing so well. Jess and Mallory were competing hard against a very good team as well, but came up short and lost in a tough match. Melissa and I were left to battle it out to determine who would win the doubles point, and thanks to some great poaching by Mang and solid play on both of our parts we were able to clinch the doubles point for the team!

Taking the ten minute break in between doubles and singles, everyone was fired up to get out on the court again and take on the Buckeyes one on one. I was questioning whether I would be able to play because I was still feeling really sick, but decided to give it my best effort. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and I ended up losing 6-4, 6-3. It was a disappointing loss, but my teammates really came through in the rest of the matches! Reka, always the solid player, dominated her opponent and gave us a 2-0 lead. Melissa finished up next with a convincing win at #5, closing out a close second set to give us a 3-0 lead. Clinching the match for the second time this season, Mallory Cecil played unbelievably against Kristen Flowers and won her match at the #1 spot!

The crowd was VERY supportive and it was so much fun to see everyone rallying behind us. I think the Duke Field Hockey team deserves a big shout-out for today- they came out in full force and had even made signs for each one of us with things like "Eureka" and "Don't Mess with Jess" written all over them! Crazy Towel Guy also came by after the basketball game- he has certainly proven to be one of our biggest supporters over the past two seasons and it's always great to see him in the stands!

Until next time...

Coach's Corner - Josh Goffi

This is a little out of the norm for me to be writing our team blog but I think there is good reason. We lost today to the Florida State Seminoles (FSU) 5-0. That's right Duke fans, 5-0. Shocking. Well that's what the papers say at least.  All you need to know is that the boys were points away from winning that match 4-1. We just came up short in the clutch this time and that's okay. It is going to come, I can promise you that. So here is the thing, I am not going to write to you about what happened today but rather what didn't happen.

Penn State only has 4 indoor courts. So, after we lost a doubles point where we had match points to win, singles matches 1-4 went on and 5 and 6 had to wait for an open court. Unfortunately, we were not able to complete the matches at 5 and 6 because the FSU coaches didn't want their players to possibly get injured so they decided to pull them when the match was clinched. Therefore, they defaulted those spots giving the match the final score of 5-2 with Torsten and Holland picking up the retirement victories. In my opinion, as a coach, that is unacceptable and all four players involved lost an opportunity to become better as a player but more importantly to grow as a person.  

Tennis is the greatest sport in the world for one reason, it is the ultimate teacher. The character that one builds from this game is priceless. The opportunities to grow are endless but they are all disguised as daunting challenges. As players, we have to confront them and embrace them and that is not easy to do at all. Today, Torsten and Holland missed out on an opportunity to challenge their self pride and professionalism. When no one was watching and the outcome didn't really matter, they still needed to perform their jobs with the highest level of professionalism yet that opportunity was stolen from them. 

Try to follow me here because this is where I go off on my rant about a few of the life lessons you can learn through tennis... Humility is an ongoing lesson because tennis is like a roller coaster, the highs and lows are never ending throughout a set, match, career, etc. When you feel on top of the world, there is an inevitable low lurking around the corner and vice versa. If you undertand this then the highs won't be so high and the lows won't be so low.  Another is courage. We encounter self doubt all of the time on the court. When you are uncertain about yourself and your abilities, you still have to push through and do the right thing. Perspective is another. You learn not to panic because nothing ever happens the way you planned, so don't panic…ADAPT! And my personal favorite, it teaches you how to dig deep. Most people don't know how deep they can dig mentally and/or physically and most might not see the relevance this has to life but to me it is extremely important. With this self-awareness, you can walk into any situation and feel like you can find a way to get through it somehow, no matter what. You never panic, you just adapt. I can go on and on with situations that mimic everyday life… 

If you really think about it, how many times have you felt these emotions or been in situations like I just described above? On the court? Off of the court? Personally, just in this past week I encountered all of them and most importantly, dealt with them. If you take the situations that tennis presents to you head on, it creates a confidence (not to be confused with arrogance) that can get you through life. Most tennis players are very successful in life after their tennis careers and I say most because not all fully take on the challenges that tennis presents. 

This sport is fantastic and we are all blessed because every level of playing presents challenges. I know you can relate to these situations on and off the court just like the pros, so dive in and embrace these opportunities. If you are just starting tennis, stick with it because it's the greatest.

Hope you were able to follow me... 

Thanks for reading,

Josh

Insert Creative Title Here

You haven't truly experienced Duke unless you walk around at 7 AM on a Saturday; it gives new meaning to the word 'deserted.' But our 10 o'clock match required an early warm-up, and our dear coach, Jamie Ashworth, wanted us to be "alert and ready to go," which in my case, means waking up a minimum of 3 hours before the start of a match. Sometimes, even that doesn't really work. As motivation (or BRIBERY) for waking up at this atrocious hour, we were treated to a breakfast buffet at the Washington Duke...I don't speak for the whole team here, but the combination of "breakfast" and "buffet" never bodes well to my dietary habits. After eating an assortment of approximately 2 danishes, a croissant, an omelet, a muffin, and an infinite number of french toasts, we were ready to get started.

Unfortunately, there was a slight flaw to our morning: Amanda, our favorite bubbly teammate, was conspicuously absent from our group. She had woken up this morning with some kind of a ridiculous stomach virus, and had to go to the training room to get an IV...it was pretty apparent that she would be in no shape to play today. This presented us with a pretty hefty quandary: with the absence of Amanda, we only had 5 healthy players to take the court. Hmmmmmmm. Solution? TARA IYER SAVES THE DAY!!!

That's right, Tara was the hero of the day, as she teamed up with Amanda's usual partner Melissa (a.k.a Isamel, but noone really calls her that) to win their doubles match 8-3, after literally not having hit a ball for AT LEAST a few months. It wasn't particularly spectacular, due to the obvious inhibition of movement on Tara's part, but they totally got the job done, and it gave our whole team a boost. Adding Melissa and Tara's win to the pure destruction that Ellah and I produced on court 3, we ended up winning the doubles point to start off the match. On court 2, Mal (OUR LITTLE BABY FRESHMAN!!!) and Jess were also dominating, and were up 6-3 before the doubles point was won. Oh, and this would probably be a good time to mention WHO exactly we were playing: the VCU Rams.

Next came singles....since I was technically playing tennis and not paying attention at the beginning, I didn't manage to keep track of everyone's score, except for Jess', since I am perpetually hypnotized by the barrage of volleys and overheads that always seem to be occurring on her court. She got down an early break, but then battled back to win the first set 6-4. Meanwhile, our amazing adorable freshman MALLORY had done a little something I would term BEASTLINESS and won her match 6-1, 6-0. I was the second one off the court (by literally 2 milliseconds) and won 6-0, 6-0, to the utter dismay of my opponent, who seemed particularly flustered by the incredible shanks I managed to produce on the run. With those two wins, we went up 3-0, and only needed one more win to clinch! At this point, it seemed that Ellah, Melissa, and Jess were determined to keep us in suspense and vie for that all-important clinching honor. Ellah happened to be the one to do it, keeping the foot stomps to a minimum, and won her match 6-0, 6-4. That second set was a little tighter, maybe due to the fact that her opponent's grunts got continually more annoying as the match progressed. With the match won, Melissa and Jess were the last two on court. Melissa had a temporary out-of-body experience when she was up 5-2, (you know what I'm talking about, we've ALL done it) but returned to her body just in time, to win the second set 7-6. Jess, or Robocop as Jay called her today, continued her onslaught of netness, hitting 20 million volleys and overheads in the last 6 games, and took the second set 6-1.

sooooo, to sum the day up:

Duke: 6 VCU: 1

Great success!

till next time............

-REKA

Behind the Strings by Steve Carrow

What started out four years ago as a way to make some extra money to offset the alarming rate of “daycare” has now evolved into a very fulfilling part of my life – Stringing for Duke Tennis.

On an average day, I’ll wake at 5:20am dress for the gym and load up the car with my “work attire “, a very large bag full of last night’s stringing labors and head out for Sheffield Tennis Center.  After arrival, I’ll “restock” the “completed bins” in the men’s and women’s locker room and head off for a quick workout, followed by a day of my “day job” (as a Project Manager for Duke).  Then on my return trip home, I’ll swing back by Sheffield to pick up a new allotment from the “to be strung bins”.   After dinner and family time, I retire to my stringing room and turn on CNN or ESPN to listen to (depending on the day/season) and begin my second career.  Depending on the load, usually one to four hours of work on these weekdays along with added time on Saturdays and Sundays usually gets me caught up with demand.  I do manage to slip in five to seven hours of sleep each night also, contrary to what Ramsey will tell you, and then the process starts all over again.

As glamorous as that sounds, it’s really NOT the fulfilling part.  No the part that makes it all worthwhile (aside from the check once a month) is the interaction with this amazing group of young adults and coaches.  First the kids, sure, we like to call them “kids”, but they’re so much more.  Day in and day out I get to see them up close, working together for a common goal and having a youthful energy and lighthearted fun attitude all the while.  Like siblings, they pick on one another and compete amongst themselves on and off the court.  But also like birth brothers and sisters, they stick up for each other from outsiders with a bond of loyalty that can only be described as “family”.  The personalities and nationalities are as diverse as you might expect from a University called simply “Duke”.  But the cohesion of a team among this group brings this simple North Carolina native to truly believe that “world peace” could most certainly be attainable some day, but for a common goal.

As a tennis fan, I’m amazed at both their physical and mental skills of the game, but as a support member of these teams, I’m most proud of their character.  Any predated preconceived notions of elitist “Duke” arrogance, has been replaced with the reality of true moral sincerity.  Sure they’re all intelligent and the fact that they’re also division one athletes test my notions of divine fairness when it comes to the distributions from the gene pool .  But any resentment towards the genetic gods is soon dissipated when I witness the work ethic and the stress toll of a work load of academics and athletics at the highest level possible.  Add to that the ingrained pressures of being an adolescent in 2009 and envy is soon replaced with empathy (except when they’re on a road trip to Hawaii).  It’s the mastery of the life balance and commitment to excellence in all of those areas that I most admire from this group of student athletes.   I’m really glad through these blogs that you (the fans) get to see what fine individuals these young adults are.  They’re really worthy of your support and I know firsthand how much they genuinely appreciate it!

As for the coaches, what can I say except WOW?  They sign up for the jobs of mentor, teacher, friend, boss, disciplinarian, coordinator, travel agent, maid, role model and the list goes on and on.  Couple that with the responsibilities and accountabilities of answering to the parents, fans, staff, alumni and Athletic director and you’ve got a recipe for stress with a side order of “you get to work nights, holidays  and weekends away from home”.  Still thinking they’ve got it made because they get to coach tennis for a living?  Consider this, during the season the teams only get one day off a week and don’t forget that you have to keep one eye on the global domain of recruiting all the while.  But even with all of those trials and pressures they still make it fun, after all, it’s still a game right?  Come to any match and you’ll see the results of these amazingly talented and committed individuals who are simply, the best in the business.  Former standouts themselves, they know firsthand the pressures and challenges facing their teams and impressively meet them head on, conquer them and make it look as smooth as the strokes they perfect each day.  But the really impressive part is that they not only endure this process, but embrace it.  Ask any one of them if they would rather be doing something else and without hesitation the answer is always an emphatic no!   Tennis is a remarkable sport that brings together people that otherwise might never cross paths.  It’s my honor to be involved with this outstanding group of dynamic and impeccable people and my pleasure to share these views from inside with you the fans.  

As always, thanks for your support and for joining us on this journey.  Hold on tight – it’s going to be a fun ride, full of mains, crosses and some perfect tension for just the right feel at impact.

Dylan Arnould- Nostalgic and Feeling Good

For me, Saturday’s match against VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) brought back some old memories and familiarly good feelings afterwards.  As a team we posted a very solid and overwhelming performance, bettering the VCU Rams by a score of 6-1.  And why was I feeling nostalgic?  Probably because VCU was the second team I ever played against in my collegiate dual match career almost exactly two years ago, but probably even more so because former Duke Tennis alumni Peter Rodrigues 07’, David Goulet 08’, and Alex Stone 08’ were all in attendance, all of whom I played on the team with, and all of whom drove a long distance to be there.

The doubles started off really close and with us down a break on two of the three courts.  Al and Kiril we doing well keeping their opponents at the number one position, but Reid and I were struggling to find a groove and Torsten and Holland were in a close fight at line three.  But we battled back well at positions two and three, most impressively with Holland and Torsten fighting off a match point to come back and win their match in a tiebreaker.  Reid and I ended up losing shortly after the doubles point was clinched, though it was of no consequence to the overall outcome and we had done well to come back and stay alive for the sake of alleviating some of the pressure on the freshmen duo.  Big props to them for fighting back and coming up big, and also to Al and Kiril for a really hard earned win at number one.

Our singles warm-ups were subject to a new innovation in player introductions thanks to Mike Gagnon (the invaluable Director of Clinical Operations and Planning for Surgery at the Duke Medical Center who has donated his time and energy to helping both the men’s and women’s tennis teams) who offered pro basketball intros that helped get things started and revved up the energy level. After battling back in the doubles to take a 1-0 lead in the overall score, there was no let up as we got out to first set leads on nearly every court right away.  I was actually on serve throughout most of my first set, but as I glanced at the Goldstein scoreboard I saw we were dominating on almost every other court.  Torsten was next to me playing well and smothering his opponent, and on the other side of me Reid was off to a fast start and it seemed improbable that his opponent would be able to successfully fight back.  Kiril was playing well and providing some great fire for the rest of us, as even though I was unable to see much of his match I heard quite a few of his “Go Duke!” yells.  I got off early enough to see the last few games of Pinsky’s match which he closed out confidently with some crowd pleasing shot making.  Al had the upper hand on his scrappy opponent throughout most of the match until a hard fought set didn’t go his way, and then was unfortunate to have to concede to playing an always unpredictable super tiebreaker to decide the match, which he narrowly lost.

It was a great feeling afterwards and all among us were pleased, especially our coach Mr. Josh Goffi who was celebrating his 30th birthday in conjunction with our victory.  Spirits were high though and the crowd was awesome, with there being an awesome attendance turn out.  Among the attendees were such notables as Count Chocula, the Chicken, and if I’m not mistaken I believe the infamous Gorilla was there as well.  Most crucial though were the guys not playing that were providing the noise and support that makes such an incredibly huge difference.  It was a team effort between the ten of us and our famed coaching triumvirate in addition to the incredible crowd support that delivered the decisive victory. The atmosphere was great and I can’t wait for our next home match, which regrettably is not until we play a double header on March 4th before we then start up the ACC Season with N.C. State on March 18th.  Thanks to everyone that came out and supported us, you all made it such an awesome atmosphere to play in and showed what an advantage it is to have a supportive and plentiful home crowd.  We leave Thursday to head up to Penn State where we will play for a spot in the last sixteen of the Team National Indoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday (I’ll be really annoyed if we are scheduled so that we miss the Super Bowl).

Our first dual match!

We played our first dual match of the season against Old Dominion University yesterday. Understandably, the girls were all nervous, but exited at the same time. It had been more than eight months since we had officially competed as a team (the Fall season comprised of individual tournaments). Liz Plotkin and I could not play due to injury, and we were ready to cheer like crazy!

Our new freshman, Mallory Cecil was businesslike. She pulled back her long blond hair into a tight bun, and stepped onto the court with confidence. Jessi Robinson partnered Mal, and we watched them with eager anticipation. They made a great doubles team! After stuggling through (and winning) a loooooooooooong first game, they effortlessly demolished their opponets. The other doubles teams were more experienced, as the girls had played together last season. They played well, and led the team to the first point.

All this while, more and more people streamed in. They were ready to support the girls, and did so quite loudly! The singles started. Jess, Ellah Nze, Reka Z., and Melissa Mang played superb tennis in the beginning and steamrolled their opponents in the first set. Ellah's opponent, a feisty hitter, came back and even led in the second set. But Ellah, helped by the crowd, triumphed in the end. I must say, the Sprited Freshmen Luke Marchese and David Holland, and the Crazy Towel Guy, didn't exactly keep their voices low! A special thanks to them. Mallory and Amanda Granson were down in the beginning, but came back and dominated in the end. We won 7-0.

The experience was made even more memorable by the people who came to support the team yesterday. I would like to thank you all for watching, and hope you come to the rest of our home matches. You make it fun; we love you!

Thanks for reading,
Tara

The Magnificent 7-0

Our coaching “triumvirate” of Ramsey Smith, Josh Goffi, and KJ Hippensteel made their dual match debut this evening under the roof of Sheffield indoor tennis center. Everything they wore matched. The crisp jacket, the windpants, the shoes, the socks… their GQ-like attention to detail must have put fear into the sweatpants-clad Elon staff.  They looked, in a word, professional.

And so did the players (figuratively speaking, of course, — my 1998 Volvo was bought with my own money). We did such a “professional” job it was almost a little dull. On one end, you saw the Good German Torsten Wietoska slowly dismantle Phil Nemec’s Canadian net-rushing. On the other end, in a match that was just dying to be played on red clay, Alain Michel’s “Brasileiro” style slowly dragged down and strangled Alberto Rojas’s legendary grinding. And in the middle, Reid Carleton and his background chorus of soccer player fans made Damon Gooch’s evening a nightmare — sweet revenge from last weekend. Pinsky, Kiril, and Dylan all dominated. As Lil' Wayne’s voice blasted through the speakers announcing our triumph, everyone but our guests from across the state left the building satisfied.

There were still some moments of drama. They may not have known it, but Dylan and Alain were playing match-clinching points at the same time. Dylan won his match approximately 2 seconds before Al, giving him the honor of first clinch of the year.

In the locker room afterwards, one didn’t really know what to criticize. Doubles were fiery and the breaks came early and often. Outside of a couple tough first sets, singles went pretty smoothly. At least this time (and hopefully the first of many), we went out and accomplished close to what we set out to do. It was a job well done from all aspects of the program.

I guess good things happen when a certain member of your team is reading “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.” It keeps our priorities straight.

However, tomorrow is a new day and Saturday night brings a new opponent, the highly ranked VCU Rams. We have quite a rivalry with these guys, especially after last year’s painful (particularly for me, as I lost the decider) 4-3 loss. It will be one of the most exciting home matches of the year. Saturday night indoor matches always have a great atmosphere and huge crowd and this should be no exception. There will be an absolute battle on the courts. Basketball tickets will be given away, and pizza will be eaten… at no charge. If you’re not there, you’re missing out on what is probably the best night of college tennis in North Carolina all year.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us tonight, and to everyone keeping up with the blog, 

Aaron 

The Battle of Tobacco Road

MLK Day – A Day to Celebrate

January 19, 2008 – MLK Day. More than 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech heard around the world. Every year on this day, the United States of America pays respect to a legend who advocated peace and equality. Despite the overwhelming sense of unity felt around the nation, there remained one hot spot, a tennis center to be specific, in which animosity and unadulterated hatred still thrived. On the third and final day of the Duke Invitational, the Battle of Tobacco Road unraveled under the lights of the Sheffield Tennis Center. Duke versus UNC – pride, honor, and most importantly, bragging rights were on the line.

Doubles play commenced with more intensity and fight than the two previous days combined. The international tandem of Al (Alain) and Kiril played an extremely well fought match but came up a bit short against a team who seemingly forgot how to miss a volley. Reid and Dylan prevailed in a close contest against their Tar Heel opponents through the winning combination of Reid’s deft volleys and Dylan’s burning desire to plow the ball straight through opponent’s chests. The freshmen duo of Torsten and Holland played a solid match demonstrating maturity and team chemistry well beyond their years. The “Dream Team” consisting of Carp and Pinsky put on a show for the crowd with a decisive 8-3 victory complete with eclectic shot making. At the completion of doubles action, Duke tallied 3 W’s while UNC garnered only 1.

Inside the locker room, energy as well as morale was high. The coaching staff of which I’ll refer to as the Duke Tennis Triumvirate (Smith, Goffi, and Hippensteel) was extremely pleased with our performance as well as our ability to match and ultimately surpass UNC’s energy. Nevertheless, the triumvirate issued sage advice by telling us not to get complacent and to come out even hungrier for singles. They reiterated that our UNC foes, despite an abysmal past two days, would still fight and compete because they were playing Duke. After the 10 minute intermission, the singles matches began. Right off the bat, things got heated as energy and emotions ran high.

As a person more inclined to numbers than words, I’ll first start off with the overall statistics. We won 5 out of the 8 singles matches which equates to 62.5% for those who fancy percentages. The Tar Heels were successful at the top positions, but the Duke Blue Devils dominated everywhere else. At the first spot, Reid unfortunately ran into a player who had signed up for the wrong tournament. His opponent, Donato, may have hit a plethora of winners, but lacked geography prowess to know that Melbourne was no where near Durham, North Carolina. Kiril, the Bulgarian sensation, competed extremely well but in the end, could not overcome his opponent’s lefty crosscourt forehand. However, this is where UNC’s success ended. To lead the way, Junior Dylan Arnould won a three setter while exhibiting true tenacity. During an extended rally in the first set, I was shocked as I looked over to see Mr. Arnould on the ground nursing his left ankle while grimacing in pain. In my three years at this institution, I’ve witnessed two catastrophic events and could only hope for the best. Relief spread among the Sheffield crowd as he finally got to his feet and gently walked to his bench. After receiving medical attention, the crowd applauded as he returned to the baseline to continue play. Arnould did drop the first set, but under the guidance of Mr. Hippensteel, Arnould would battle back in the second and would run away with the 3rd. In the other matches, Torsten played a great match against Crone of UNC. Despite Crone’s incessant approaches to net, Torsten utilized his superior German genes and came up with fantastic passing shots. I watched this match in its final stages and vividly remember one scene in particular. After Torsten aced Crone to obtain his first match point, Torsten pumped his fists and let out a roar that epitomized fighting spirit – David Hasselhoff pre-Wendy’s/YouTube would be most proud. On the other end of the center, Jared Pinsky made quick work of his Tar Heel opponent. Word on the street was that Mr. Pinsky heard the day’s cookies were the best of the weekend and well frankly, he couldn’t miss out. Holland, who was determined to take first place in time spent on court, once again was battling deep in a third set. Amidst the militia of UNC players heckling, Holland dug deep and triumphed once again. The other freshmen from New Jersey, Luke Marchese, channeled his hatred toward UNC by not only beating, but crushing his opponent. A man of few smiles, Marchese did have a big grin for this victory. The match that went the distance involved the Sao Paulo native, Al. His opponent, Ahari, notorious for getting in one’s face proved to be just that. Even I as a spectator knew I was in for the long haul after Ahari went wild after just the first point. Nevertheless, Al remained stoic and unfazed despite these antics. Sure enough Al confidently took the first set 6-3 which, much to my relief, temporarily quieted Ahari. The second set was closely contested as Al had two match points. On the second match point, Al decided to end the match with an exclamation point as he attempted to win the point with a drop shot. Unfortunately, this exclamation point would soon turn into ellipses as Ahari would go on to win the point and eventually the set. In the third and final set, Al came up a bit short due to the combination of the weekend’s fatigue as well as better play from his opponent.

All in all, this weekend was a success as we dominated all three days of play. Additionally, Junior Dylan Arnould receives accolades as he earned the most points and thus won the singles contest of the Duke Invitational. The Duke Tennis Triumvirate congratulated everyone on a great weekend and was extremely excited to get the season underway.

Finally, as an engineer, I’m accustomed to succinct statistics that capture the entire weekend in one glance. I have formulated them and they are as follows:

Statistics

· Matches Won: 32

· Matches Lost: 8

· Winning Percentage: 80%

· Duke > UNC

I want to personally thank everyone who came out to support us this weekend.

Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the Inauguration (and snow)

David Lue

Liz Plotkin-Last Day in Michigan

Depending on who is reading this you may or may not know that I have been struggling with a knee injury for the past year. Therefore, I will be writing about the matches I watched.

We faced Michigan in doubles and Vandy in singles on our last day of competition in Michigan. It FINALLY warmed up to 18 degrees on our last day there which made it much more bearable. The tennis improved as well. It was great to see everyone get more comfortable playing and most of the singles matches were won fairly easily. The doubles matches on the other hand were both very close. Amanda and Melissa pulled out a really close one 9-7. Ellah and Reka lost in a a nail bitter but had a ton of really great points. Overall, this weekend was a great start to the season. My teammates were able to get some really good matches and I truly enjoyed watching them. I'm looking forward to our first dual match later this week!

Dylan Arnould- Act II from The Gothic Wonderland

Day two of the Duke Invitational brought with it more inspiring results and performances from the Duke Men’s Tennis Team against the ETSU (Eastern Tennessee State University) Buccaneers, along with some more excellent cuisine catered courtside (It’s just a shame that normal on-campus dining can’t measure up).  After a total of thirteen matches – four doubles and nine singles – we finished with a dominating 8-1 record in singles play, with a slightly less impressive 2-2 split in the doubles action.

The day got started on a slightly different note, with Al providing a new warm-up CD intended to surpass the inspiration that Luke’s heavily hip-hop inspired mix did for us on day one.  A more dance and techno influenced compilation infused with some hip-hop favorites from the previous day, I’ll put my personal opinions aside and just say that I suppose it’s difficult to argue with the performance results that came afterwards…

The doubles got off to a mixed start, with Carp and I offering some instances of solid and disciplined doubles play at the number four position, though unable to adequately consolidate on service breaks, and ultimately going down.  Reid and Torsten started out on fire at the number two slot and seemed destined to overwhelm their Buccaneer opponents, but a few close games and bad breaks disrupted their very sound play early on.  Alain and Kiril proved their reliability and grit as a doubles team once again, proving too determined and fired up for the number one duo they were facing, a rather dangerous and talented team if I may say so.  Pinksy and Holland were too far away for me to see much, but they took care of their opponents in a close 8-6 match.

We headed into the locker feeling pretty good about of our play despite failing to dominate the doubles like we did the day before.  The reality was that this team was a cut above the Elon squad we faced the day before.  Nevertheless we refocused in the locker room and headed back out to provide some impressive singles play, though perhaps more so in the way we took care of our matches and did all the little things than simply ball striking or flare.  What we lacked in flash and grandeur we made up for with discipline, competitiveness, focus and tough play.  Ramsey, Josh, and K.J. remarked to us in our post match briefing on how we wore down our opponents and broke their spirits, not only winning our matches but leaving our adversaries feeling completely defeated.  We’re hoping to make that a habit for all teams paying a visit to the Gothic Wonderland this year.

Singles wrap-up (from what I was able to actually see of everyone…)

My match started with some rough patches in the first set, with my eventually getting back on serve after being down a break and then breaking a second time to then serve out the set.  After that it was a matter of keeping him from getting back up, which I was thankfully able to do and allowed me to get off the court a little quicker than the previous day.  My neighboring teammate Torsten stepped up his level a couple of notches today, putting behind him some early bumps to get grooved and physically overwhelm his opponent with heavy balls and net attacks.  He also literally left sweat and blood on the court when he managed to fall yet again and reopen a wound on his fingers.  This misfortune was on top of his undoubtedly feeling a bit intimidated by how vocal and loud I was being on the court next to him…Kiril battled their number one player Enrique Olivares from Venezuela, ultimately coming up short, but as he related to me after the match, the difference was merely a few big points that didn’t go his way.  Reid overcame his somewhat off day to win the first set against his opponent and then run away rather comfortable with the second.  The few glimpses I did catch reminded me of my aspiration to one day make half as many crazy gets as him.  I hear Al (Alain) performed extremely well, though I saw almost nothing of his match, as he was on the other end of the Sheffield Indoor Center and finished before me. Holland showed some great heart, pulling out a tight three set match on a day that was certainly not his best.  Pinsky took care of business and slid lefty serves and smacked early returns to dispose of his opponent rather tidily.  Carp’s balls had too much depth and he drilled enough down the line backhands to manhandle his opponent similar to day one. Luke battled back from a set down to force a third set, until whoops a 10 point super tie breaker was played in lieu of a third, but which he buckled down to take 10-8. 

 Tomorrow we’ve got our rivals from 8 miles down the road, the North Carolina Tar Heels.  Irrespective of some recent struggles, their hatred of Duke is only perhaps surpassed by ours for them.  Needless to say it should be an awesome prelude to our real showdown to come at the end of March.  May the visiting Tar Heels be sent packing and the bellows of “Go Heels” be obscured by the screams (which I will surely be leading in both quantity and decibels) of “Go Duke”!

 Thank for your interest and support,

 Dylan Arnould