Final Days in Hawaii

Hello Avid Tennis Blog Readers,

As our amazing trip in Hawaii comes to a close, our team could not have spent the last day any better. After already partaking in such activities as snorkeling, hiking, and paddle boarding, we had yet to encounter such an adventurous unnerving experience that was going to take place early this morning. We started off bright and early with a wake up call at 5 a.m., reason being that sharks come out early in the morning, and at night. We piled into our cars and drove 40 minutes to the North Shore as the sun was rising, mentally preparing ourselves to soon be surrounded by sharks in a metal cage 3 miles off the Hawaiian shore. Everyone's hesitation died down as we all, well most of us, climbed into the water together and realized how remarkable the experience really was. Even if some of the 7-9 ft sharks came incredibly close, we are now proud to claim we've swam with sharks.

After a bumpy boat ride back to sweet land, we visited the North Shore pipeline where surfers catch some of Hawaii's largest waves. Unfortunately, the waves were not significantly large today, but after our shark experience I doubt anyone would have been up for another rigorous water experience. On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the Dole Fruit Factory. Here, our coaches challenged us to a race in what is said to be 'the largest maze in the world.' Their underestimating got the better of them as they came huffing and puffing out of the maze when half our team was already out ten minutes beforehand. After treating ourselves to some pineapple frozen yogurt, we took a scenic route back to our hotel. Even though we were tired, napping wasn't worth missing the mountains, fruit fields, and shores of Hawaii.

For dinner, coincidentally, we went to Duke's restaurant located right on the beach. Marianne's birthday is tomorrow, sadly during our red eye back to school, so we surprised her by sneaking a suggestion to the small ukulele band playing around the restaurant to sing her happy birthday. I was fortunate enough to experience my birthday in Hawaii and I'm happy she got to celebrate a little before heading back to school.

As our trip comes to an end, we could easily say that this was one of the best (if not the best) trips we have experienced as a team. Although it doesn't seem possible, we leave Hawaii closer than when we arrived. The few matches we squeezed into our trip definitely provided good practice for our upcoming season, and we head back to Duke confident and excited to compete. The idea of leaving paradise and returning to piles of books and assignments is highly discouraging, but soon enough we'll get back into the swing of things, on and off the court. Nostalgic, we leave Hawaii with stories and memories that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

- Moni & DWT

Hawaii Day 6

Hi Duke Tennis Fans!

Taylor Swift’s “Red” started off the day today at 8:00am sharp. It was the first day that I had to be woken up by an alarm, as opposed to the consistent 7am wake up time thanks to jet lag. I have to admit that Taylor, without a doubt, beats out jet lag for which one I would rather be wakened by. Similar to yesterday, we had our team breakfast at the incredibly difficult-to-choose-from-buffet due to the overwhelming amount of appealing options. I attempted to mix it up with some peanut butter and toast, but the veggie egg-white omelet persisted to be incorporated. Following breakfast, Ester and I did our routine study session for two hours (minus the occasional venting of something we’ve stumbled upon that we can’t seem to understand). Ester works on her pre-med math requirement while I study finance – also known as preparing for internship interviews in which a finance foundation that I do not quite have down yet, IS NECESSARY.

We again remained the same as yesterday and picked up Wolfgang Puck for our pre-match meal. Most of us ordered the same thing as well, which makes me wonder whether we are a superstitious team after all. Followed by the warm up, I was less nervous to perform our new cheer that we do prior to going on the courts for matches. Thanks to Rachel, we have definitely improved our cheer from last year (although the coaches do not seem to agree yet – but they will), where we have a multi-layered chant as opposed to our “go duke” one from the last two years. If anything, just come out to the beginning of our home matches to witness it. Anyways back to the match, Jamie had said yesterday that we would be better today than we were yesterday, which was true. We swept with a win at 7-0 in just over three hours, where everyone stayed focused and played to win. I must say the wind could have had some impact on this result, which was down from the 40mph gusts that we experienced the days before. Regardless, undefeated in every position was a great ending to our matches here at the beautiful island of Oahu.

The day winded down with take out from P.F. Chang’s on the pool deck, and there were of course no complaints about this eating arrangement. At the end of dinner, we discussed our outing tomorrow morning that begins at 5:30am... Apparently the sharks feed then so that’s when we’re going...Yup, shark diving. Thinking about a closed metal cage with ten foot sharks surrounding me doesn’t exactly sit well, but at least my teammates and coaches convinced me that they will not be the great white sharks that I was imagining were going to eat me. Regardless of the wake up time – I’m actually looking forward to hearing “Red” again – and the fears, we’re all very excited about the trip to North Shore. It’s not every day you get to swim around with sharks! But if no one reports back with how it went, you can assume that it truly was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity and the 100% safe reassurance must not have been quite so accurate. Just kidding! Those are my fears talking, I’m going to head to bed before the fears kill my excitement.

Stay tuned for how cool the shark diving and North Shore’s twenty-foot waves will be!           

With DWT love

- Mary 

Hawaii Day 5

Hello Blue Devils Fans,

I feel the need to quickly introduce myself, as it is the first time I have the chance to be writing our daily blog. My name is Marianne Jodoin and I am the most recent addition to what we commonly call DWT (yes, I did have to ask what it meant in my first few weeks into school because I kept hearing it and still didn’t know what the letters stood for). I am originally from Canada and have resided in the U.S. for the last two years. I am a transfer student for Fresno State in California. So far, my experience has been unique and enriching. My transition has been better than ever expected, thanks to my seven lovely teammates.

            Enough about me, time to talk about the real stuff! Today was a very special day for me. A lot of what we call “firsts”. First of all, it was my first time writing on the blog. The girls on the team have been doing such a tremendous job that I want to make sure I won’t let any of the readers down. Another “first” for me was our team cheer. After dinner yesterday, the girls needed to meet for a “serious talk”. The seriousness of the meeting did not stick for long as we all started cracking up following our first attempt at our new cheer. After a couple of tries, we felt confident enough about making a good first impression to the numerous spectators, which actually only consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Ashworth. I cannot speak on the other girls’ behalf, but I was very nervous about the outcome. It went from potentially embarrassing to total success. I can now say that it was mission accomplished. Yes, we did scare our opponents, the ‘Rainbow Warriors’.

The last “first” that I will talk about today was the one that I was looking forward to the most: playing as a Blue Devil. I have been looking forward to this day since the second I got accepted into school. I had many dreams and also nightmares: I once thought I would show up on court forgetting my shoes and racquets, show up late to my match, etc… Let me reassure you, none of that happened. The season officially started with our three doubles matches. The energy was very powerful between the courts, as we were cheering really loudly for one another. About an hour later, it was time for our team meeting that followed our three doubles victories. Jamie did a pep talk to prepare us for singles and we were all ready to go. It didn’t take long for DWT to establish our dominance. We won on all five courts without dropping a set. I think there was no better way to break the ice, and it made us hungry for more.

            After the group stretching and ice wrapping, we all headed to dinner to celebrate the first 2012-2013 win of the Duke Women’s tennis team. Nothing better than eating at a very traditional Hawaiian restaurant called Lulu’s.

            Ok, time for me to let you all go! It was a pleasure sharing our day today, as it was a very special one.

            Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog, as it will summarize our second match against the University of Hawaii.

Time to get our beauty sleep!

Marianne Jodoin and all of DTW.

Ready… Set… Go! Season has arrived!

Dearest Duke Tennis Fans,

            It’s the last day before the start of our 2013 season and the excitement is evident among everyone! We awoke to a beautiful day and rushed to the lobby of our hotel in fervent anticipation of one of our all time favorite activities: BREAKFAST!! We then headed to the courts for practice. It was windy again, although not nearly as bad as our first day. We spent much of practice playing singles and doubles points in preparation for our first match tomorrow against the University of Hawaii.

            After practice we had lunch then split up for the remainder of the afternoon. A few people went to the beach while others stayed in to do some work. It’s hard to believe but even as we are enjoying the sun in Hawaii classes start tomorrow. This means that we will soon be shocked back into our world of school, travel, and tennis. Luckily for us, we can enjoy a few more days in paradise before we travel back to reality.

            Our day ended with a special dinner to celebrate the 20^th birthday of one of our wonderful sophomores, Monica Turewicz, more commonly known as Moni. We ate her favorite food, Italian. I was hoping to have a solo in our rendition of happy birthday but I was denied the part due to my overwhelming lack of singing abilities. This momentary sadness was eclipsed by my preoccupation with my Rubik’s cube that the waiter had presented to me at the beginning of the meal. Actually, this was a clever plan concocted by Jamie to surprise me. (Recall my obsession with Rubik’s cubes from Annie's earlier blog here.) Thanks to the help of our athletic trainer Jen, I have now completed the top two layers. (Any hints on how to finish?)  After some ice cream cake we headed to our rooms for a good night’s sleep before our big day.

            Stay up to date on the goings-on of DWT on GoDuke, and as always, thank you for your support!!!

GO DUKE!!!

Good night,

Hanna Mar and all of DWT.

Hawaii Adventure Day 3

Hey there Blue Devil Fans,

Today was our third day in Hawaii and it was a great day! We started off with the same amazing breakfast where everyone seems to love egg whites and pineapple. There was a bit of rain at the courts so a few of us decided to try paddle boarding by the hotel where it was nice and sunny. This was definitely an experience, it started off pretty well with only a few falls, but before we knew it the shore seemed so far away! On the journey back in, for most, was when the waves got the best of us. In the end we all made it back to shore and got a great workout as well. Paddling worked up quite an appetite and we all headed to lunch at Wolfgang Puck before heading to the courts. It was a lot less windy today making hitting a bit easy for the girls who are preparing for their match on Wednesday. For those of us not hitting, including Jamie’s wife, athletic trainer Jen, sports psychologist Greg Dale, sports media reporter Kyle, and myself, we tried taking on some stadium runs and hill sprints, which we are feeling sore from already. Lastly we ended the day with some classic songs at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffet happens to be one of Jamie’s favorite singers). We are getting closer to our first dual match of the season, so keep checking in for results and to find out what other adventures we go on!

Rachel Kahan and DWT

Hawaii Day 2

Hello Duke Tennis Fans!

Day 2 in Hawaii started off with an early wake up call, courtesy of the band playing on the street outside of our hotel. That was followed by breakfast, where we dug into the scrumptious pineapple that Hawaii is famous for. After breakfast, we headed to the courts at the University of Hawaii and had our first day of practice. It was our first time playing outdoors since November, which made practice a little trickier than we anticipated. The wind really picked up when we started practicing, and we found ourselves awkwardly chasing after balls that were being blown away in every direction. Nonetheless, we got through our practice without getting too frustrated or breaking any rackets.

After lunch, we headed to Diamond Head State Monument to hike up to the summit of Le’ahi, which is the Hawaiian name for the Diamond Head Crater. For the majority of the hike, we remained in front of the coaches and ended up beating them to the summit (without breaking much of a sweat). The hike wasn’t so steep as it was rocky and uneven, making it challenging for us to keep ourselves from spraining our ankles. Thankfully, however, we managed to each get out in one piece without any injuries (I’m sure that our coaches are relieved). The view from the summit was breathtaking: clear, blue water and the city of Honolulu greeted us when we arrived at the peak and of course, we took many pictures to document the beautiful scenery.

When everybody had hiked back down, we had a great meeting with our sports psychologist, Greg Dale. The first three topics consisted of sharing our proudest moment, most embarrassing moment, and the one person who has impacted our lives the most. The fourth topic was the most emotional for all of us, because we had to list reasons why we trust each of our teammates and coaches. I feel as though this exercise really made us realize how close we are not just to each other, but to our coaches as well.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about the adventures for our third day in Hawaii!

- Ester and all of DWT

Hawaii Day 1

Aloha Duke Tennis Fans,

            The last 72 hours have been a whirlwind to say the least! Our spring season officially started on Friday at 10:30 with our first team practice of the year. After a quick lunch and a trip to the bookstore to pick up our textbooks for the impending semester, we had fitness with coach Howser followed by another team practice. Though our first day of practice was hard, it was nothing to the task that faced us later that night—packing. Knowing that our dorms wouldn’t be open upon returning from winter break, we all haphazardly threw some warm-weather clothes into spare suitcases and left them in the locker room. Though the concept of packing for Hawaii should be simple (tennis clothes and bathing suits) somehow it turned into a multiple hour affair that took much longer than anticipated. The next morning’s alarm at 3:55am came painfully fast, but the thought of Hawaii was more than enough motivation to drag our tired bodies out of bed.

Eleven hours of flying time later, which we filled with movies, Hanna’s rubiks cube and the game bejeweled, we finally touched down in the beautiful Hawaii!!!! Once we collected all of our stuff at baggage claim it was off to our gorgeous hotel on Waikiki Beach and a quick dinner with the entire clan, which brings me to another exciting piece of news. This week we are lucky enough to have two wonderful additions to our team. The first is Greg Dale, our sport psychologist, who works with DWT as a group as well as with some of us individually to help us be the most mentally tough players out on the court. He is a vital role in our team’s success and we’re all very excited to spend some time working with him this week as we look to grow stronger as a team on and off the court. The second addition to our team this week is the beautiful and talented Whitney Hills who also happens to be my roommate—lucky me! Whitney is an amazing photographer who will keep everyone updated with regular photos of both DWT and DMT.

After a much-needed night of sleep we woke up to the beautiful view of Diamond Head Mountain and Waikiki beach. After a quick breakfast at our hotel we all packed into a van, driven by a colorful character, and headed over to Hanauma Bay Beach Park for some snorkeling. The minute all 14 of us were finally pilled in, our driver proceeded to tell us that his day job is selling and riding Harley Davison bikes—a comment which prompted several confused looks.  However as the ride drew on, his list of jobs continued to grow as did our speculation as to whether or not he was telling the truth. His resume ranged from fisherman to shark wrangler to author to party cruise line owner. His stories provided us with laughs for the rest of the day.

The snorkeling was a great relaxing way to spend our first day in Hawaii. The people who worked at the beach warned us not to step or touch the reef as an effort to preserve the environment. It seemed pretty easy in concept, but once we got out into the water, we saw just how close parts of the reef were to the surface which made avoiding it more challenging than we originally thought.  However, with the reef so close to the surface we got to see lots of colorful fish and even a couple turtles! It’s amazing how they will swim right up to your face! After a couple hours of exploring the bay we had a quick team meeting with Greg on the beach and then pilled back into the van to head back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Over the course of the week each one of us will write up a little something on that day’s events to keep you all updated. I personally can’t wait to see what the rest of this week has in store for us! As a parting note I want to take the time to thank the Hills family for their continued support of Duke Women’s Tennis. Our program definitely wouldn’t be where it is today without your family’s generous contributions! So, on behalf of all of DWT, thank you so much for everything you guys do for us! We are forever grateful! GO DUKE!

Aloha po (Goodnight)

Annie Mulholland and all of DWT