“The greatest pride of all comes from being a part of something you could never do alone”

Dearest Duke Tennis Fans,

Well the season has officially come to a close. After several weeks of post-season hibernation, we are all beginning emerge and reenter the social world—a place where pajamas are no longer the standard dress code (ugh, what a shame). During these last few weeks we’ve had the chance to look back on our season, which was filled with highs and lows.  Albeit, the lows might be the first things that come to mind when looking back, the highs are equally (if not more) important to keep in mind.

            This year DWT welcomed two new members to our family—Marianne Jodoin and Nicole Lipp. First off, from a personal standpoint, it’s a shame I didn’t get to know Mimsie better in juniors because she’s one of the sweetest, most sincere and hardest workers I know. As a junior transfer, she brought a unique perspective that definitely played a key role in keeping our team positive in the face of adversity. She understands and appreciates just how lucky we are to be part of the Duke family. Her transition into Duke life has been seamless and she has handled herself with an unbelievable amount of poise and grace. Not only is DWT lucky to have her as a vital component on and off the court, but I’m also fortunate enough to have gotten to play doubles with her for most of the season (pound it ;D).

Nicole Lipp is so humble and down to earth that I don’t think she will ever truly understand the immense impact she had on our team this season. None of us really wanted to question it at the time, but we all asked ourselves, at one point or another, if we too would be willing to forgo the freedom of a senior spring to join a team that seemed to be cursed with injuries? (The answers went something like, “Uhh, thanks, but no thanks”). Not only did she pick up a sport mid-semester senior year that she hadn’t played or trained for in nearly 4 years, but she jumped right into the busiest part of our travel schedule! If I didn’t know how smart she was I might have thought she was a bit cookoo. Nevertheless, she came to practice every day (yes, her classes coincided perfectly with our practices…go figure) with a smile on her face and quippy one-liners that made long practices and tiresome road trips really enjoyable! Luckily, she will still be around Duke next year to complete, what she calls “a victory lap” at the Fuqua Business School.

            Speaking of victory laps, our captain and other senior, Mary Clayton, will also be around next fall finishing up her last semester of undergraduate classes. Though she’d never admit it, the success and perseverance DWT showed in trying times were a direct result of her leadership. She refused to let adversity on court seep into our lives off court. Mare taught us all the importance of enjoying and valuing the process and the people you meet along the way. She truly embodies everything you could hope for in an upperclassman.

            To an outsider, our season may look disappointing and filled with one unlucky break after another. However, looking back on it now with a fresh perspective, it’s not the hard times that define this season, but rather the people we survived it all with. It's people like Mimsie, Nicole, Mare and the rest of the team that make DWT something worth fighting for, no matter the obstacles in our way. We WILL be back next season stronger (and healthier) than ever! We look forward to seeing everyone out at the matches. Thank you so much for the wonderful support throughout the season. I hope you all enjoy the summer (don’t melt away) and we’ll SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

GO DUKE!

Annie and the rest of DWT

Heading into the ACC TOURNAMENT

Dear Duke Tennis Fans,

            For those that have been following us recently we have had a pretty rough schedule. The girls had a huge win against Florida St. at their home courts! Unfortunately they came up short against Miami, UNC, and Maryland. Due to the unfortunate events that happened in Boston the match against BC was cancelled.

 Although the results haven’t been exactly what we have wanted, DWT refuses to give up and continues to fight. We continually talk about how we need to believe in ourselves and no matter how many people we have out there, if we play how we know we can play we can win. We have also talked a lot about how there is no pressure on us, no team wants to lose to a team with 5 players so we should embrace the adversity and play with a chip on our shoulders.

I am currently not playing but I am so proud to say I am a part of DWT and despite this crazy year that we have had the spirits of the girls have been incredible, and the way that they support each other cannot be found on any other team.

Up next is the ACC tournament out in Cary where we will take on Virginia Tech at 3pm on Thursday. We really could use the support so please come out to Cary!!!! Our season isn’t done yet and DWT is not going anywhere without a fight!!!  

Rachel and the rest of DWT 

Dear Blue Devil Fans,

First of all hope you all had a Happy Easter! DWT had an amazing weekend. Our first match of the weekend was against Virginia and we always have close matches with them. Just like last year we pulled out a close one 4-3. Although we lost the doubles point against Virginia the girls bounced right back and played really well and when we met up in the locker room before heading out to singles we made sure to forget the doubles point and come out strong in the singles. Annie had a close match winning 7-6, 7-5 to give us a 3-2 lead. Ester competed extremely well but just couldn’t get the win making the match tied at 3-3. Our number 1 singles Hanna was on the spot. Fighting back from down 5-2 in the set and down 5-0 in the tiebreaker was able to grind and fight and pull out the win. We had an extremely loud crowd that supported us this weekend that really helped the girls. This match was huge for DWT confidence and kept us undefeated in ACC play. Next we had Virginia tech and we talked a lot about bringing the same amount of energy and fight and after an emotional day the day before making sure that we took care of business. DWT certainly took care of business winning the match 4-1 in only a little over 2 hours. After the match concluded we got to sing Annie happy birthday as she turned 20!!!!

Up next we have Clemson and Georgia tech that will be our last home matches of the season where we will be honoring our senior Mary Clayton. Mary has been an incredible leader on this team and has showed some great heart and fight at her time here at Duke!!!

Thank you everyone who came out to the matches can’t wait to see you this weekend!!!

Rachel and the rest of DWT! 

DWT beats Florida and Princeton. Next Stop Michigan Notre Dame

Dear Blue Devil Fans,

Sorry for not having a blog post in awhile we have been super busy with midterms coming up and cant forget to mention DWT’s huge win over number 2 ranked and also 2 time defending champion Florida. This is my third year at Duke and we have not beaten them since I have attended Duke. Our most recent lost to them was 4-3 at the NCAA tournament which was a huge heartbreaker and the team was hungry for revenge. The girls came out with such fight and energy that we were able to pull out a win. We talked a lot before the match about how we need to BELIEVE that we can beat them and that we put in the time and effort needed to succeed, as well as focusing on playing the person rather than the name on the jersey.  The girls were extremely proud of what they accomplished and it was mentioned several times that hard work does pay off, and all the hours put in were worth it after a win like that.

After that big win we had a meeting with Greg Dale where we talked about what we did well and what it looks like when we play well versus when we are having an off day. We used this to pinpoint what makes us not play our best such as pressure or fear of loosing, and came up with strategies to help us preform our best as often as possible. Our next match was Princeton who we knew wasn’t as big of as match as Florida but the girls set up goals for themselves to keep them motivated. DWT knew that that they were going to come out fighting hard and they did not want a let down after their huge win. They knew that the stands weren’t going to be as full as Florida and we needed to bring our own energy which we did, it was not our best match but we did enough to get the win.

Next up the girls will travel to Michigan and Notre Dame. Both are very good teams and from my experience last year Notre Dame was a very hard place to play at they have a great crowd that comes out to the matches.

Although I am not traveling with the team to these matches I will be rooting for them, just like all of you who are reading this blog, and could not be more proud of the way that these girls have been preforming. I would love nothing more than to be out their competing with them but there is no doubt in my mind that these girls are going to have an unbelievable season this year.

We really appreciate everyone who has been coming out to support us at our matches and we are really excited to see you all at the matches as our outdoor season is right around the corner!

Rachel Kahan and the rest of DWT!!!!

Ready, Set, Go Duke!

Hi Duke Tennis Fans,

I hope you’ve all had a great couple of weeks! Unfortunately, National Indoors didn’t go quite as well as we would’ve liked. We competed well as a team in our first two matches against Baylor and Northwestern, but fell short against UNC in the semifinals. Despite the disappointing loss we move forward with a heightened level of motivation and focus for the upcoming weekend.

Come out and support us Sunday at 12pm for a HUGE rematch against #2 Florida in Sheffield Indoor Stadium!!!!! The courts are located at the end of Kville by BlueZone. Having taken confidence from our wins and lessons from our loss DWT is ready for some payback time!

We’ll have FREE barbeque in between doubles and singles along with lots of free GIVEAWAYS. If a pair of snazzy Duke Tennis sunglasses isn’t enough to entice you, we will also be raffling off 2 Men’s Basketball tickets for their game against Miami on Saturday March 2^nd. We look forward to seeing everyone out there!

GET LOUD & GO DUKE!!!!

 -Annie (and the rest of DWT)