The sixth-ranked women's tennis team lived up to expectations this weekend as it crushed unranked Old Dominion 9-0 and dismissed No. 26 William & Mary 6-2 in Newport News, Va., on Saturday and Sunday.
"Everybody played really well," said first-year head coach Jody Hyden. "It was a good team effort."
Beginning the season with the pressure of a top-10 ranking and a new coach to adjust to might have been expected to produce the formula for a season-opening disappointment. But these Blue Devils turned the butterflies that often cause early upsets into an advantage.
"It's always nervous starting out, but nerves are good," Hyden said. "That means things are the way they should be. Being nervous and getting butterflies is a good feeling if you look at it in a positive way."
Those nervous jitters proved beneficial on Saturday against ODU. Duke cruised past the Monarchs with straight-set decisions in every singles and doubles match.
The biggest question prior to the match centered around freshman Ellen McCance, who stepped in to play for classmate Luanne Spadea. Spadea, who played as an amateur on the pro tour last year, did not play this weekend because of illness. Hyden, however, had little to worry about, as McCance handled ODU's Stephanie Smith 6-3, 6-1.
"Ellen McCance played No. 5 and did a great job," Hyden said.
With their first match under their belts, the Blue Devils faced their first ranked opponent in William & Mary Sunday. Duke knew that, unlike Old Dominion, William & Mary would field an aggressive team intent on moving up in the national polls.
"Ranked teams will get a lot of the highly-ranked juniors, and William & Mary has had a great recruiting class over the last couple of years -- whereas an Old Dominion will get kids not ranked quite as high," Hyden said. "So there is a level difference in that kind of situation."
However, once again the Duke team lived up to its billing as it stormed to a 4-2 lead in singles play behind the leadership of senior co-captains, Monica Mraz, ranked sixth in the nation, and Wendy Lyons, ranked 27th. Mraz, playing in the No. 1 slot, knocked off the Tribe's Katrin Geunther 6-1, 6-0, and Lyons eased past Lauren Nikolaus 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2. McCance, filling in again at the fifth spot for Spadea, won 6-0, 6-2 over Shawn Arrowsmith. At No. 6, Duke received encouraging news as sophomore Wendy Fix played her first match since a shoulder separation she suffered in the fall. Fix beat Maya Klavora 6-0, 6-2.
The match was still in doubt when the doubles contests began, but the team of Mraz and Lyons won the match over Guenther and Nikolaus 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. At No. 3, McCance teamed with sophomore Karen O'Sullivan to defeat Arrowsmith and Klavora 7-6(4), 6-3. Although the No. 2 doubles match, featuring Duke's Fix and freshman Laura Zifer, was suspended, the match was already firmly in the Blue Devils hands.
"William & Mary was a very good team that did a lot of things very well, and our girls answered the call," Hyden said. "They were talented, and we were talented. It just came down to the team that competed the hardest and played the smartest. That was the difference in the match."
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