In the second leg of the collegiate grand slam, the women's tennis team suffered through a tough weekend against some of the best players in the country.
The Blue Devils left the 1995 Riviera All-American Sunday morning with a pile of qualifying-round losses and only a few bright spots at the tournament held in Los Angeles.
"I think we could have done better as a team," sophomore Laura Zifer said. "A lot of the tournaments we play are smaller tournaments, like at N.C. State or South Carolina, but this was an All-American tournament, so it was basically the top 64 players in the country."
Zifer and junior Wendy Fix provided one of the few highlights for the Blue Devils, upsetting the No. 2 seeds from California-Santa Barbara in the opening round of the main draw. The tandem advanced to the second-round before losing a close match to a doubles team from Mississippi.
"Beating the No. 2 doubles team was a pretty big confidence booster, and even in the match we lost, we were pretty close," Zifer said.
The other doubles teams did not fare as well as the more seasoned Zifer-Fix team. Freshman Vanessa Webb and sophomore Luanne Spadea were knocked off in the first round of qualifying, while juniors Karen O'Sullian and Diana Spadea managed to advance to the second round of qualifying before being ousted.
"As for the other doubles teams, I think we're still definitely trying out different combinations to see who plays well together," Zifer said.
On the singles side, Webb stormed through three qualifying rounds to earn a spot in the main draw, where she advanced to the second round. She lost 6-3, 6-2, to the 1995 National Clay Court champion from Old Dominion.
"She was extremely good--one of the tops in the nation," Webb said. "The match and every game was so relatively close."
Webb--the top-ranked Canadian junior woman--notched her third straight impressive performance as a collegian, following up a third-place finish in the Wolfpack Classic and a first-place finish in the South Carolina Invitational.
"That was the first time that I had seen the top girls in the country, and, to tell the truth, I'm not scared," Webb said. "It's good to play some better players. It makes things more challenging and more exciting."
Aside from Webb, the Blue Devils did not fare very well in singles. Only Diana Spadea won a match, making it to the second round of the qualifier. O'Sullivan, Luanne Spadea and Zifer all lost in the opening round.
"We all had tough draws with really good players, so we needed to be at our best to even have a chance," Zifer said. "It's really hard to do well in that tough a situation, but we probably still should have done better."
Injuries may have stifled the hopes of a few of the players, though. Luanne Spadea was forced to serve the entire tournament underhanded because of a rotator cuff injury, and O'Sullivan is also nursing a strained rotator cuff.
Despite the poor performances of many of the Blue Devils, the spring season should provide ample opportunity for redemption against the nation's best.
"There's a good chance we'll play a lot of them again in the dual matches," Zifer said. "Coming out of the tournament, we know we have confidence that we can win the future."
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