The Austrailian Open may be nearing its end, but the collegiate tennis circuit is just beginning.
The men's and women's tennis teams open their spring season of matches at the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoors this weekend. The men's tournament is in Clemson, S.C., while the women will travel just a short way down Tobacco Road to Chapel Hill.
The tournament was created by the coaches in the conference to help give the players a chance to open the spring season with some quality match experience.
"It's a great idea, beacuse it gives us an opportunity to play some competitive matches before the dual match season starts," men's head coach Jay Lapidus said.
"In the past, we used to just go straight into dual matches, and a lot of times we didn't start playing at a very high level until halfway through the season. This gives us a jump on the people that we play early in the year."
Although the men's team lost two prominent members of its lineup, Lapidus has reloaded with three freshmen and will place eight singles players into competition at the Indoors. The only members who will not play singles are senior Rob Chess, who will rest up for the National Indoors on Feb. 8-11, and senior Nick Walrod, who is suffering from a shoulder injury. Chess will compete in doubles with classmate Peter Ayers, however.
The women's team also lost two key players to graduation, but head coach Jody Hyden has also brought in a host of freshmen to bolster the lineup. Only two Blue Devils will compete in singles competition, though. Junior Karen O'Sullivan and sophomore Laura Zifer will represent Duke in singles, while sophomore Luanne Spadea will join O'Sullivan to compete in doubles.
"This is my first tournament in a long time, since I was injured in the fall," O'Sullivan said. "I'm just looking forward to getting back on the court. I want to just take it match by match and see how it goes."
The women's team will head right into dual matches the following weekend, traveling to Utah to take on Brigham Young, Utah and UC-Santa Barbara.
"[The ACC Indoors] is just a warm-up tournament for all of us," O'Sullivan said. "We have our first team match in a week, and this is just something which gives us some good practice."
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