National Team Indoors: Day 3

Dear Wonderful Fans,

We’re in the finals of National Team Indoors!!!!! It is difficult to describe how excited and honored we feel to be in this position to play for the title tomorrow. Today’s match was a great show of DWT energy and support that Cal Berkeley had no answers to. We definitely hope to build on this tomorrow as we go into the battle for the title against UCLA… We’re looking to give it our best shot and leave everything out on the court.

Since it is Grammy Award night and we’re all glued to the TV screen, it’s only right that I talk about DWT music. Besides things such as gum and frozen yoghurt that are an essential part of DWT life, we are also very much into our music. Whether it is 6AM before a match or just before we go to bed, all the girls on this team enjoy a wide variety and genres of music. Our song of the tournament has been “The Champ” by Nelly. Marc has made it a ritual to play it just before and after our matches and it’s definitely an inspiration to us.

Here’s a selection of some of our current favorites. There’s something for everyone so download and ENJOY! :

Locker room song: Chicken Fried- Zac Brown Band

Annie: Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

Trice: Glad You Came- The Wanted

Moni T.: Collide- Leona Lewis and Avicci

Ester: Till I Collapse- Eminem

Hanna: All We Are-One Republic

Big Ray: I’m Shipping Up To Boston- Dropkick Murphys

Mary: Next to You- Chris Brown

Mo G.: Summer Girl-Leighton Meester

We play at 11AM tomorrow and just to remind you again, you can get our scores and updates on GoDuke.com.

GO DUKE!

Yours in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors: Day 2

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Day two of National Team Indoors down and DWT is up and rolling into the semifinals! The match today was a major improvement on yesterday with everyone really coming out with a ton of energy and getting the job done in an efficient manner, beating Michigan 4-0. I think everyone played with passion out there and we did a good job supporting each other, which made the playing a lot easier. As always, we wish you were here supporting us but we were treated to some parents in the stands today— Hanna’s, Ray’s and Trice’s parents were all here cheering and bringing the Duke loudness all the way to Charlottesville which was awesome to hear!

Some random DWT news: Each season, we have a team that is known for some sort of tradition or superstitious behavior. Past teams have had to eat the same breakfasts before matches, others need to listen to a specific playlist before matches, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a team that has been so attached to gum-chewing as this year’s team. Last night, I was surprised to find out that Mal, who always seems so calm and composed during the matches, uses gum as a way to steer superstition in our favor. Every time a person loses a game or seems to lose a couple of points, Mal chews a new piece of gum and throws the other one out, even if she’s only been chewing it for a couple of minutes. Needless to say, once the match is over, she has chewed up a whole pack of gum. Additionally, she only chews fruity gum during the day and mint gum in the evenings… I haven’t asked her whether this is also a superstitious ritual, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

While superstition might not be everyone’s reason for chewing gum, most of us go through at least a pack a day. Trice may be one of the most notorious gum chewers DWT has ever had. So when you come to our next match and you don’t have gum on you, we’ll probably have a stash in our pockets and we’re always willing to share!

Tomorrow, we play Cal Berkeley in the semifinal round. We’re very excited for this opportunity and we’re ready to bring our best game!

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors: Day 1

Dear Wonderful Fans,

The first day of the tournament was a tough battle but we came out on top, beating Ole Miss 4-3. We wish you had been here to enjoy the nail-biter because your cheering and support always helps us through and makes it more fun out there for us!

This morning, Jamie talked about how we are all here for the team and every individual is important to the success of the team. I think we definitely put this into practice on the court today and did a good job of battling, supporting and pushing through to the end. Even though the girls will agree with me when I say we all could have probably played better, I think that we definitely set the tone of striving to improve throughout the tournament and the support that we have for each other will be a defining factor as we move forward. With this, I want to refer to one of my favorite quotes— “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” We proved that we’re in this together today and we’re going to be even better at it tomorrow and let the results take care of themselves.

I’d like to draw special attention to Annie Mulholland who clinched the match for us today. Being a senior, I can tell you that being the last one out there in that atmosphere and having the responsibility of winning for your team is one of the toughest things to do. However, it is also one of the most satisfying and amazing feelings to achieve. Annie played her heart out there today and showed true leadership by the way she fought against a sporadic opponent and maintained her composure until the end. She’s a freshman but she showed that she’s going to fight for this team until the end. She might not always be successful but her efforts and her heart out there will be the things that the team appreciates more than any win.

Tomorrow we play our quarterfinal round against Michigan at noon... As always, we wish you were here but check GoDuke to follow our scores and I will keep you posted through this blog.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

National Team Indoors Eve

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Thank-you so much for coming out and being so LOUD for us against Northwestern last Saturday. You made the battle so much more exciting and we really appreciate it! The time for National Team Indoors has finally arrived. We have been preparing for our first match against Ole Miss tomorrow at 9AM. This is the start to a great opportunity for us to play (and beat) the best teams in the nation and we definitely feel prepared for the fight. We had a good practice yesterday and this morning, focusing on getting used to playing on different courts as we have (fortunately) had consecutive weeks of playing on our home turf.

Tonight, we went to the introductory team banquet. This was one of the few opportunities to dress in non-tennis clothes, which always causes some excitement amongst a girl’s team. Needless to say, we had been discussing our outfits since early this week and made time to take some photos. The dinner was delicious! Hanna could tell you endless details about the Tiramisu, which was a total hit. After the introductory speeches and an overall pleasant evening, Marc drove us to a DWT sanctuary—Arch’s. Every year when we make a trip to Charlottesville we make a point to go to this wonderful place and enjoy some frozen yoghurt with “gooey brownie” topping. It has become a little bit of a team tradition and we were happy to introduce the freshmen to this deliciousness.

For now, we are off to bed and ready for an early start to an exciting day tomorrow. I will keep you posted on every day’s events and results so that you can all be with us in mind and support us all the way from Duke! Oh, and a big shout out to the Men’s Basketball team for beating UNC last night… we were all blooming with pride when it was mentioned at the banquet and we were happy to watch the game and

support the team on TV.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."- Chaplin

Dear Wonderful Fans,

With the conclusion of a really great weekend, we are off to National Team Indoors in just over a week! This is an awesome opportunity for us to play some of the best teams in the nation. Jamie presented us with our famous tennis center quote on Friday: “ We set standards that make others wish they played for Duke.” After the playing this weekend and the overall energy, we are definitely ready to live up to the challenge of setting a higher standard for ourselves and for the other teams out there.

In this blog I’d like to introduce you all to the three honorary members of our team, our three lucky charms— Albert, the tennis fairy, Dobby the gnome and Bumper the Leprechaun. This may seem a little strange to some of you (DWT is sane, don’t worry) but I think that these three little characters have earned their way into our team and have become an integral part of the locker room.

Here’s a little background: Dobby, personally named by our Harry Potter wiz- Hanna- lives in his own little garden house on our windowsill. His dear friend, Albert, who has a Santa Claus-ish beard, BRAIDED EYEBROWS and who is dressed in a very abstract glittery outfit, has his very own tennis racket and resides next to Dobby. Oh, and Albert originated in one of Trice’s Christmas gifts last year. Big Ray’s little, green leprechaun, Bumper, is cased in one of the smallest containers I’ve ever seen. Despite us begging her to release him, Rachel refuses because apparently he’s guarding a gold coin (I don’t know any Irish folklore but apparently a leprechaun cannot stop guarding this coin to bring luck.). Anyways, Bumper lives on the same windowsill in our locker room and accompanies Big Ray in her matches each week.

Why are these abstract charms so important? Well, they’re our lucky charms of course but more importantly, they have become a kind of pre-match locker room attraction and ritual for us— they make us laugh!

There is no denying that everyone gets a little nervous before matches. This is good. A little nerves, when managed correctly, makes one more ready to play and more energetic on the court. But it is when nerves get the better of us that we stop seeing the fun in playing and we become too serious. I know that each girl will tell you that they play best when they’re having fun out there. While they’re having fun, they transfer the positive energy to the rest of the team and before long, we’re all having fun, we’re positive and more often than not, we’re winning. I think that the rest of the team will agree with me when I say that there’s no better way to have fun than to laugh… and that’s precisely what our lucky charms represent in our locker room.

Whether it is a funny story, a joke, or just us being silly, every girl on this team knows how to laugh at themselves and with others. We try and bring a light atmosphere to every practice, match and event so that we aren’t only getting the job done, but we’re having fun doing it. Beyond teammates, DWT is a wonderful friendship circle and we’re proud of it! And thanks, to our three little lucky charms, we have daily reminders of the importance of having fun together.

Next weekend, we play Northwestern at noon on Saturday (4^th Feb.). We hope that you can all come out and support us because we always value you all cheering us on.

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT.

Striving for Greatness

Dear Wonderful Fans,

I’m happy to say that our first dual match weekend was a great success— not only in terms of the results which were obviously very pleasing, but also in terms of how our team was able to come together, work together and really play for each other. Thank-you so much for coming out and supporting us. It always means so much to hear you cheering and it makes our jobs on court all the more pleasant and much easier!

Before our match against William and Mary on Friday, Jamie provided us with a really meaningful quote that I think sums up what we’re trying to achieve— “you don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to become great.” This weekend was the start to an extensive season ahead. Our ultimate goal is to win the NCAA Championship in May but in order to get there, we need to apply ourselves to every match so that we can be as prepared as possible for what lies ahead. No match is going to be easy and I think that each girl has realized and prepared herself for this.

This weekend was the first dual match for the four freshmen and the first time that they were playing for a team rather than for themselves. Rather then fret and fear the matches, they all approached this challenge with such ease and poise! Additionally, each of them did an amazing job of cheering on the rest of the team and really looking out for one another. With a new team (especially as much as 4 new freshmen), the team aspect sometimes can be difficult to develop because of differing dynamics, but I think that this group of girls is truly here to play as a unit rather than as separate individuals.

As we move forward, we definitely hope to build upon this weekend from all aspects. We are trying to fulfill our responsibilities to the team by looking after ourselves off the court and making sure that we’re staying healthy and rested so that we can perform at our best when the times come. This means many sacrifices in other aspects of our lives, but we have a goal and a well-established belief that the team is the priority right now. As the famous DWT saying goes: “TEAM FIRST!”

Next weekend we play the first rounds of the National Indoor tournament. We play against College of Charleston at 2PM on Friday and if we win, we play Illinois/ Winthrop on Saturday at 6PM. Please come out and cheer us on! And, if you see us around, don’t be afraid to ask us anything or talk to us because we really want to get to know you a little better and I think it would be awesome if you got to know us off the court a little better as well. We have some real goofballs on the team but I don’t think this is always clear from our serious on -court selves!

GO DUKE!

Yours in Tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

Welcome Back!

Dear Wonderful Fans,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas break! This goes without saying, but DWT is tremendously grateful for your support thus far and we hope that you are as ready as we are for a much-anticipated season. Similarly to last season, this blog will serve as a weekly update for you and will provide you with some “insider” information about our team. But, more importantly, I hope that this will be a means by which you get to know this year’s team a little better. As I’m sure you know, we have four new additions to the team this year— Annie Mulholland, Beatrice Capra, Ester Goldfeld and Monica Turewitz. My hope is that you get to know each one of these special girls for their off-court personalities as much as for their on- court, beastly selves by the end of this semester.

A brief recap from the end of last semester: we had the opportunity to participate in a very rewarding, team bonding experience by reaching out to the Durham community. We visited The Girls Club mentoring program where we gave a brief presentation in which we introduced ourselves and talked about the value of teamwork and how this is applicable to one’s life outside the athletic world. After this, we presented each of the 25, excited children with their own Babolat rackets. This experience was not only beneficial to the children but it made us realize how important it is to use our privileged positions as Duke student-athletes to help and inspire the less fortunate. Additionally, the presentation forced us to reflect on the value of teamwork and the meaning of being a good teammate, which will be tremendously important in defining our successes this semester.

Back to this semester: This weekend, we had the opportunity to play some great matches at the UNLV Invitational as a prelude to the dual match season. I think that each of us now has a better understanding of the things that we need to work on personally this week as we move towards our first dual match. Off-court, this was the first time in Vegas for a lot of us and we had the opportunity to explore the crazy casino world (without actually participating obviously). While the slot machines are the usual attraction in this part of the country, our pyramidal-shaped Luxor hotel provided us with enough areas of exploration. Hanna’s mathematical mind could not get enough of the diagonal path of the inclinators as opposed to the normal up/down movement of elevators. Other attractions included dining at various lavish restaurants and losing ourselves in the AMAZING four-story M&M World. Oh, and obviously we spent a lot of time relating our experiences to the wild adventures depicted in “The Hangover” movie.

This weekend we will embark on our dual match journey with a match against William and Mary on Friday at 5PM and a match against Indiana on Sunday at noon. I know that we are extremely excited and ready to prove to you and to ourselves that we can reach our goal of winning this year’s NCAA Championship. However, every journey begins with a single step and we realize that we have a lot of work ahead of us to achieve this goal.

Please come out and support us and BE LOUD (tennis is a LOUD sport)!

GO DUKE!

Yours in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT.