On Our Way to Indoor Nationals!

Hi everyone! It certainly has been a while since anyone has posted on this blog. The start of the new semester was hectic for everyone, but we've finally settled into the swing of things, and are excited to start keeping you all in the loop again with more frequent updates :)

I'm very happy to report that women's tennis came out with two wins this weekend to advance to the rd. of 16 of National Indoors in Madison, Wisconsin! Starting out on a very snowy Saturday afternoon with a match against Yale, we were both mentally and physically prepared to play after a tough week of practices. Knowing that Yale would have nothing to lose and would come out firing, we all showed great energy and played solid tennis. Winning all three doubles points, we entered into the singles play with confidence and ended up beating them 7-0.

The following morning we fueled up for our match against VCU with an amazing breakfast at Nosh! Most of us got the 'Mike's Slammer' which has a pancake (the size of a basketball), eggs, bacon, and potatoes. DELICIOUS! The pancakes were so good that we even went back for seconds (and added chocolate chips to the next batch :) We have a running joke on the team that Reka plays better when she eats chocolate, so we normally coerce her (and are met with little resistance) to order chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate chip muffins, or hot chocolate so that she gets her fill. Mission accomplished.

Fueled and ready to go, we headed over to play VCU. Doubles got off to a great start for Monica & Jess along with Liz & Reka. They made very quick work of their matches, while Ellah and I struggled a little more than we would have liked. Setting up the points correctly, but unable to execute the put-aways, we finally got into a groove and won our match 8-6. Up next, singles! Although Mary lost her match in a tough two-setter, both Liz and Monica picked up the first two singles wins for the team. With the score at 3-1, Reka, Ellah, and I were left battling it out on our courts to clinch the match. Ellah, having easily won the first set, had a tougher second set before winning the match in a tiebreaker. Although I lost my first set, I mentally restarted my match in the second set and was able to win the next two sets to propel the team to a 5-1 lead. Shortly after, Reka closed out her match, which she won 7-5, 6-4.

We are really pleased with how the matches went this weekend and are excited to travel to Madison two weekends from now! Before then, we have a match this coming Saturday at 11am vs. Indiana. Hope to see you all out there!

-Amanda Granson

GO DUKE!