Wrapping up the weekend...

Hi Duke Tennis Fans!

I hope everyone enjoyed the gorgeous weather and had a great weekend! The women's team rebounded from a tough loss to UNC at National Indoors with wins against #7 Michigan on Saturday and Furman on Sunday. Despite taking a little bit of time to adjust to playing outside (as we hadn't hit any tennis balls outside since October), we were able to adapt pretty quickly and it felt incredible to play outside!

We started off Saturday losing the doubles point to Michigan, which was a disappointment. It was one of those days where you just have to go with the flow and work through the kinks. Luckily, we had a short-term memory with doubles and came out fired up to play our singles matches. I'm really proud of how the girls rebounded, and like Jamie says, we proved that we can we can win 4, 5, and 6 singles matches against even the toughest teams in the country! It definitely gave us a boost and helped us going into our match against Furman on Sunday. Furman was a tough team, as a lot of the girls have unconventional strokes and are really scrappy. This can easily throw people off their game, but we were able to stay focused and get the job done quickly. We won 7-0 and are now enjoying a much needed day off today!

Here's a little hint of what we typically do on our day off: WORK! The life of a college student-athlete is consumed by sports and academics. When we aren't playing our sport, we are doing school work... and vice versa. Today, I'll be spending some quality time at Mad Hatters (my favorite place to study), will run errands at Target, go to class, and hopefully watch the Bachelor with my girlfriends tonight :) We all take full advantage of these days off to catch up on all the things that we need to and also rest our bodies.

Looking forward to our first ACC match against NC State on Thursday afternoon at 4pm and then traveling to Gainesville to play Florida on Sunday. Both should be battles!

GO DUKE!

-Amanda Granson

Long Overdue Men's Update

Hopefully this posting will mark the end of the drought of postings from the men’s team, and a beginning of a steady and thoughtful series of posts throughout the rest of the season (and some pictures and videos as well).

Forgive the lack of flare in this initial posting, but I feel that I must provide a little factual background since this is the first DMT post in quite a long time.

This past Friday, the Duke Men’s Tennis (DMT) took on #12 Illinois, followed by a double header against Notre Dame and NCCU on Sunday. The Illinois match was packed with people, and we owe all supporters a debt of gratitude for coming out. It was disappointing that we came up short, but it was an awesome atmosphere and one I will remember long after I take my leave of DMT after this year.

Contrastingly, Sunday was a great showing for us. We somehow pulled out the doubles point against Notre Dame (ND), and went on to roll them 7-0. We went on to unsurprisingly roll through NCCU, but more importantly, we did so quickly enough that I was able to catch the second half of the Super Bowl.

We now have a two week break before we play VCU on February 21^st (at VCU). This downtime is a product of our loss against Alabama in the 2^nd round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend (in really awesome, sub fifty degree weather). If we had won that match we would be traveling to play in the ITA National Indoors at UVA this coming weekend. It sucks, to be completely honest, but it’s not an end all and it’s only a minor setback with respect to the entire season. It’s a long season, and our biggest goals are lay at the end of the year.

The upside to this loss? We have time to get back to some hard training. In the spirit of this, we started today with a 6:30am conditioning workout. Stumbling out of the apartment with Aaron (aka “Carp”…we live together) at 6:05am into amidst near darkness is a hell of a way to start a Wednesday. But the feeling after finishing a tough early morning workout is really awesome, a high that that lasts for a couple hours (until your body starts yelling at you for not getting to sleep earlier enough in preparation for such an early rising).

This afternoon I think we are hoping to play some ultimate frisbee, but we’ll have to see whether this happens in light of the wind and cold (or maybe we’ll try it indoors). Personally I would lobby for touch football, but the chance for injury may be a little too high, and I don’t think the non-American members of the team are overly excited at this prospect (though they would do anything for us to play soccer instead).

Now that the ball is rolling on DMT postings, I’ll try and make sure that future postings give insight into more of the inner workings of DMT and not just what is posted on GoDuke.

Famous DMT quote: “It was already dead”.

- Explanation: Luke Marchese’s response to objections to his decision to euthanize an injured bee during a pre-practice huddle.

Best of luck to Duke Women’s Tennis (DWT) this coming weekend as they go to compete at the ITA National Indoor Championships!

Until next time…

- Dylan Arnould

Indiana

Yesterday was a great day for women's tennis! We took down Indiana 7-0 and everyone played very solid matches. Doubles went well, as we're becoming more and more comfortable poaching and trying out new formations. This year has been awesome for our growth as doubles players. We have been placing a lot of emphasis on doubs in practice because it's such an important part of matches, and helps to set the tone for singles. I think I can speak for every single one of us in saying that we are all gaining confidence and are pumped to put our doubles skills to test next weekend at Indoor Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin.

The day might not have been as successful, had we not first had an INCREDIBLE breakfast at the Washington Duke. Normally our pre-match meal is at Nosh, but occasionally Jamie takes us to the WaDuke buffet, which is glorious. Yes, we realize that we are spoiled... but we couldn't be more thankful for it. All of us loaded up on eggs, english muffins, fruit, oatmeal, pancakes, and waffles. It was quite the feast, and we had to practically roll ourselves out of the hotel.

As a team that travels together, plays together, eats dinner together, goes to movies together, and studies together, we get to know each other's silly habits and practically become sisters. As we're getting to know our new freshmen more and more, we are starting to pick up on the little things that they do. Mary can't eat her bacon, eggs, or pancakes unless they are swimming in syrup. We've noticed that Monica is a bit clumsy, and yesterday she even broke her orange juice glass while we were eating at the WaDuke. Jess is our little snacker and the official 'athlete' on the team. She always has little bags of healthy nuts, fruits, or power bars on hand and can throw a tennis ball down the length of the center like a pro. We're so lucky to have them here at Duke. They have been incredible additions to the team!

Until next time!

-Amanda

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!

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