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
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment