Hands + Hard Work + Humor = Hanna

Dear Wonderful Fans,

Last weekend we played our hearts out at the National Indoors. Unfortunately we lost to Florida in the semi-finals. But, it was an amazing run and I think we all learned a lot from the experience and we look forward to our next matches. We moved up to number 4 in the ITA National rankings so we’re all really excited about that! But, the hard work definitely does not stop there and we’re all working super hard as we move into our first outdoor matches this week.

I want to use this blog to introduce to you our other amazing freshman, Hanna Mar, or “Handsy Hanna.” Now if there is anyone’s touch that I envy, it is definitely Hanna’s. From absolutely amazing volleys to her “tweeners” (and I can’t explain this term to you… you’d have to see it for yourself), Hanna can basically hit any shot in the book. As I’m sure you all know, it’s an absolute treat to watch her play because of her vigorous on court energy. I know we can all learn from her diverse game.

Like Big Ray, Han brings her own special dimension to our team. First and foremost, she is one of the hardest workers on our team. No matter what she is doing, one can trust that she will give it her all. For example, when we have our Howser conditioning sessions Hanna does every drill, no matter how seemingly insignificant it seems, at 110% effort level. She also never complains. I have yet to hear an “agh, I don’t feel like this” or an “ I can’t” from her. This is a remarkable trait that I know I envy, especially because she’s still a freshman. She pushes us all to work harder.

However serious Hanna is about working hard, she is equally really witty and fun to be around. Firstly, it is important to note that Hanna is a math GENIOUS! This is no joke. But what makes us laugh is the way that she applies her mathematical skills to everyday situations. Actually at National Indoors last weekend we were practicing serves and instead of saying, “let’s switch sides” Han said, “let’s change angles.” Once Jamie indicated that he had no clue what she had said, Hanna tried to explain by using some mathematical lingo and trying to depict an angle with her hands. I can’t really express in words how funny this was but we all couldn’t breath we were laughing so hard.

Yes, Hanna has an amazingly mathematical brain but play a Taylor Swift song and you might want to put some earplugs in. I experienced this when I roomed with Hanna at a tournament in California last semester. I played “You Belong With Me” in the room and no sooner had it started playing when Hanna broke into really loud song. However, instead of keeping in tune, Han was about 5 tones off. This was HILLARIOUS! There have been many such instances. But what is even more amusing is the fact that Hanna actually admits to her “not -so -awesome” singing and does it in spite of everything. I know that we all absolutely treasure her goofiness!

GOOO HAN!

This week we’re heading into 2 matches. On Wednesday we play Wake Forest at 3PM at home.

On Friday we play NC State at 3PM away.

Please come out and show your support on Wednesday at our first outdoor match!

GO DUKE!

Yours in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of DWT

Big Ray with the BIG Game, but an even BIGGER Heart…

Dear Wonderful Fans,

As promised I’d like to start introducing our Duke Women’s Tennis stars to you so that you can get to know them a little better. This week, I’d like to introduce to you a girl that has not only brought with her a beastly game to our program, but a girl who holds a very special place in all our hearts. To you all she is known as the star freshman, Rachel Kahan. But to us she is known as BIG RAY!

Yes, I could probably spend hours talking about Rachel’s absolutely amazing tennis—one that all of us marvel at— but that is not what this blog is about. So from now on, I am going to refer to her as Big Ray because that’s exactly what she is to us!

As soon as Ray made her first appearance at Duke, we all knew that she was going to be an absolute sweetheart. Initially, she was a meek girl who brightened our days with her delightful smile. However, very soon we learnt that Ray not only had a beautiful smile, but she also had a beautiful heart. Hampered by an ankle injury last semester, Ray wasn’t able to showcase her outstanding tennis abilities. While others would dwell in their sorrow and be completely disheartened, Ray took to impacting the team in the only way that she could- huge amounts of support. Ask any of the girls and they will tell you that Ray is the epitome of a team player.

I remember one practice where Ray came up with the idea of filling up all our water bottles, even if they were not yet empty. Soon she was hobbling back and forth filling our water bottles AND adding ice to them (Something that no one else would think of doing) for the whole 2 hours. No one had caught on to what Ray was up to for the first hour, but after a while we all realized that instead of emptying, our water bottles were filling. When confronted, Ray answered, “do you need more water? Anybody? I’m going there anyway.” This was so out of the ordinary that we were all completely gob smacked. Who would ever volunteer to fill our water bottles, especially when they were still recovering from an injury? Only Big Ray.

This is only an example of many other instances where Ray has gone out of her way to help us. She not only helps in her actions, but in her words. When Ray cheers for us, our spirits are lifted. When you need to be comforted, Ray offers such kind words that you immediately feel better. And what does she do this for? For absolutely nothing. In fact Ray completely shies away from praise even though she well deserves it. She’s barely been here a semester and a half and already she has impacted our team in ways that we, ourselves don’t even realize.

So, when you see Big Ray around remember that she not only has a Big Game, But a Massive heart and that’s what we all should cheer for! GO BIG RAAAAY!

On a separate note, we are off to the National Team Indoors for this weekend where we will face some of the top teams in the nation. We have been training really hard since our close fought battle with Florida on Sunday and we’re ready to take it to them and bring home the tournament title. Our first match is at 12:30 PM on Friday against Tennessee.

Here is a link to the draw:

http://www.itatennis.com/Assets/ita_assets/pdf/Women$%2127s+National+Team+Indoor/2011+Women$%2127s+Team+Indoor+%28Wisconsin%29/2011_WTI_Draw.pdf

GO DUKE!

Yours in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of Duke Women’s Tennis

Duke Tennis's HUGE Weekend

Dearest Wonderful Duke Fans,

Even though this goes without saying, I would like to start off by thanking all of you for your superb support so far this season. The encouragement has been outstanding and the Duke Women’s Tennis team is tremendously grateful to all of you. On our part, I must say that we haven’t been good enough at touching base with you on a regular basis. However, this is about to change.

Obviously, you know us for our on court tennis skills as this is all you see…But did you know that the same Ellah Nze who conducts herself with utmost professionalism and seriousness on court can be easily plunged into fits of giggles? And, did you know that the team’s warrior, Reka Zsilinska, who completely wears her opponents down with her unmatchable consistency is a crazy nutter off the court? Yes, we want you all to get to know our off-court selves better so that when you watch us, you’re not just supporting an awesome tennis player but you are also supporting a unique personality. Hopefully, through this blog we can achieve this aim.

This week, we’ve all been intensely preparing for our HUGE match against Florida this Sunday. In our locker room conversations, we’ve been discussing how happy we are that we’re playing the Gators at home rather than having to travel there. For one, we don’t have to miss additional days of class but most importantly we’re going to have all of you behind us! THIS MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE! Having reassuring faces to look up at and hearing our names being shouted out is a huge factor in getting us through matches. I’m not just saying this; it’s absolutely true. One of the team’s personal favorites is the slow clap on match points… This not only pumps us up to win the point, but it actually gets rid of some of the match point jitters that we experience. Your faith in us is both flattering and significantly motivating.

I would also like to use this introductory blog as an opportunity to clarify that tennis IS a LOUD sport. Don’t be shy to cheer and chant as much as you like. Obviously, insulting the opposing team isn’t the way to do this, but “Go Duke”, “Go Devils” and anything else you come up with are all acceptable! And we love loud clapping so please please please don’t be shy!

This weekend is a wonderful opportunity for Duke Tennis in general:

The Duke Tennis Men’s team is playing #3 Tennessee tomorrow at 6PM. I know that they’ll very much appreciate your support as they battle it out and hopefully come out on top!

And then on Sunday, the Duke Women’s Tennis team is taking on the #2 Florida Gators at NOON. Please come out and show your support and don’t be shy to cheer as LOUD as you desire!

Best in tennis,

Monica Gorny and the rest of Duke Women’s Tennis

P.S I’ve attached a photo of us in practice earlier today! Thumbs up to us crushing the Gators (sorry about its blurriness).

GO DUKE!

Duke Women's Tennis Update

Dear Royal Blue Members and Tennis Supporters,

I wanted to thank you for all the support you have given both teams at the start of our seasons and of course wanted to thank you in advance for the rest of the year. I thought it would be nice to give you a quick update as to how our team was doing and some different things we have been working on. After our Northwestern and Indiana matches last week we felt we really needed to do a better job with our doubles and have been working hard all week. We have tried to emphasize to our girls that doubles is a lot about attitude and if you walk on the court believing you are going to win your match that is 90 percent of the battle.

There is a huge difference between saying “ I could win” vs “I should win” and we are working to instill that mindset into our team. You may seem some new doubles combinations in our next few matches, our goal as a team is to find the combinations that give us the best chance of winning the doubles point, not just trying to find one great team. In singles both Marc and I feel like we are getting better every time we go on the court. We having been working on being more disciplined and trying to have our team understand the differences in the types of errors they are making. We have been talking a lot about physical errors vs mental errors and in that of course trying to eliminate the mental errors. Everyone in the world makes physical errors on the tennis court (missing a forehand for example) what we want our team to look at is where they missed that forehand and was it because they made a bad decision on where to hit it. Hopefully this weekend and over the course of the next few weeks you will see a highly energized, disciplined team!!

On a personal note I want to add how much we love working with this group of girls. They put a lot into making all of us in the Duke tennis family proud and I hope when you walk away from a match you recognize that. We always talk about giving our fans an exciting product to watch and I think this group is getting better at that every time we walk on the court. Thank you for being such great supporters of both the men’s and women’s tennis teams here at Duke and hopefully we see you out at our matches.

All the Best,

Jamie Ashworth

Duke Women’s Tennis

Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 3

Hey everyone,

Day 3 of Hawaii is in the books and it was another incredible day. After an early wake up we headed to our amazing hotel breakfast as I'm sure everyone watched on Jared's video yesterday. Before we knew it we were back on the courts for our first practice and we got some good singles work in. Practices are improving daily, along with overall team intensity. I can tell my teammates sense how close our first match is and the importance of starting off on the right foot.

After morning practice we went for lunch at a local sandwich shop and relaxed for around and hour. We then proceeded to our second practice which primarily focused on doubles. During breaks it can sometimes be hard to get solid doubles practices in so everyone was happy to put in the extra work. Not to mention doubles drills are some of the most fun (especially when they end with butts up as you will see in the video). After the second practice we had a couple hours of free time and most of the guys headed down to the beach. A couple of us stayed behind to lift some weights to make sure we were looking our best at the beach (suns out guns out as Coach P likes to say), and one or two took naps.

The beach was a blast as usual. Today we brought a tennis ball out and were playing the game 500. The rules are fairly simple with a designated thrower that calls out a number when he throws the ball in the air, if someone from the group catches the ball he gets the points, and if someone gets to 500 they become the thrower. Luckily everyone came out injury free! After a good hour and a half of hanging and playing around in the ocean we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Tonight we went to Duke's which was a fantastic restaurant with and even better view. It was half inside and half outside overlooking the ocean. Additionally, they had some great live local music.

Possibly the most noteworthy event of the day was the arrival of Cunha. After nearly 24 hrs straight of flying he finally made it to the hotel. He looked pretty tired as expected and promptly headed to the shower before having a quick bite to eat. That pretty much sums up day 3 of our trip, I hope you guys are enjoying our little recaps and the videos we've been making. Finally, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not the most technologically inclined person and my video didn't quite turn out as I had hoped but you should still be able to see some fun and interesting clips.

-Reid

Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 2

Aloha everyone,

Day 2 in Hawaii! Waking up to another 82 degrees and all sun, another day in paradise. We started off the day going to an amazing buffet breakfast with some of the best tasting fruits we’ve ever had. After eating a good amount of food, we all loaded up the vans and headed to the courts for a practice with the Louisville tennis team. It was a good way to really get into the match mode mentality and get the competitive juices flowing. After a set of doubles and a couple sets of singles, our day became even more exciting. We headed to the North Shore of the island where some of the biggest waves in the world are. A surfing competition was taking place so we watched that for a while and then decided to test the unknown waters ourselves. We made it in to about our knees until everyone was on their back falling into the water. The ocean kicked my butt today stealing my sunglasses and necklace, so mad!! After some tackling in the sand, some competitions of who would be the last knocked down in the water, and staring at some cute girls, we headed back to the hotel through a beautiful scenic route with mountains, crazy trees, and the ocean on our side the whole time. We had some good chicken and burgers for dinner, and are all so exhausted from the action packed day. Keep everyone updated, more to come about tomorrow!

-Jared Pinsky

Hills Family Trip - Hawaii Day 1

First of all I would like to thank the Hills family very much for this trip. It is the first time the whole Duke Tennis guys and girls teams are travelling together, and it is the first time we have had a chance to have such a great time in preparation for the spring season. Hawaii has been an absolute paradise so far, and we have only been here for one day.

Today was our first official practice day. We started the day with an awesome breakfast with a lot of fruits and a few new local dishes. Everybody was starving, probably because by then it was 1PM in Duke’s time zone. We headed straight from breakfast to practice where we hit for around an hour and a half. The weather is awesome to play and most of our players were playing shirtless exhibiting their muscles, specially our muscle monster Jared Pinsky (NOT). The courts are pretty slow and the ball bounces pretty high, very different from the indoor courts we are used to playing on this time of the year in the East Coast. So it was great that we got here early in the week to adapt.

After the morning practice we split the team in two groups to get lunch, some went to Subway and the others went to a local sandwich chain next door, which supposedly was amazing (of course I was in the Subway group). After lunch we headed back to the courts for our second practice where we played a few points to start getting into the dual match state of mind.

This afternoon after practice we had free time to do whatever we wanted. We divided in a few groups but most of us ended up going to the beach and the swimming pool to work on our tan and try and get into the Hawaiian lifestyle. At 6:15 we met up in the lobby to eat dinner in the Lu Lu’s restaurant.

Being from Brazil it was great playing tennis in the warm weather again and getting my Brazilian color back. It is a little weird to walk around and listen to everybody speaking English since I am so used to going to the beach only in Brazil, where everybody speaks only Portuguese. Also it is the first time I got to chill in the beach with my teammates, which was also great.

I hope this blog shows you guys a little bit of the insights of our amazing trip. It would be great if you guys could be here to enjoy these moments with us. This is all for today,

Alain Michel