Tennis teams host top foes this weekend

The fourth-ranked women's tennis team is ready for a rematch.

In the National Team Indoors held in Madison, Wisc., the Blue Devils fell to top-ranked Florida, 5-1. This Saturday at 10 a.m., the Gators will visit the Duke Tennis Stadium, and head coach Jody Hyden feels his team has progressed since the last matchup, even enough to knock off undefeated Florida.

"We're playing them outside this time-I think that's better for us," Hyden said. "I think we're much more of a team now than we were last time we played them. We support each other better out on the court.

"I'm looking to be very competitive with them. We have to make good decisions and do the right things, and we can beat them."

Freshman Vanessa Webb, who plays at No. 1 singles for the Blue Devils, took the only victory from the Gators in Wisconsin, but Hyden is looking for a more balanced match on Saturday.

"[All the matches] are going to be good ones," Hyden said. "I like to look at our players as a whole team-that's the most important thing-that we look at every position. Every position is so critical with any team inside the top 10. Every match is a dogfight."

Duke is also hoping for a little help in those dogfights from its crowd. The Blue Devils defeated Texas on March 14 during spring break, but now that students are back, the team is anxious to get some fan support.

"We need the fans out," Hyden said. "Florida just played Texas at Florida, and they had 1,000 fans. I know the match is early, but hopefully the Duke students will come out and help us. We need the student support and the faculty support... It's a good opportunity for people to come and see the highest level of college tennis."

"I don't think the rankings mean a whole lot with them," Lapidus said. "They're very competitive; they're well coached. It'll be a good one."

Notre Dame relies on depth in all of its positions, which often makes it tougher to defeat, since the Fighting Irish battle throughout the singles lineup.

"They're really deep," Lapidus said. "They're kind of dangerous up high, but they don't drop off very much. All the way, one through six, they're pretty strong."

In the Blue Devils' win over Wake Forest on Wednesday, Lapidus tried a new experiment in his doubles teams. After struggling for much of the young season at No. 3 doubles, Duke tried a new twist. Seniors Rob Chess and Peter Ayers, who have been a vital doubles team since they entered the program, played with other players instead of with each other. Even though the change was successful against the Demon Deacons, the players and coaches haven't yet made any decisions about what doubles tandems will see action this weekend.

"I really don't know what we're going to do [with the doubles lineup]," Lapidus said. "We've been struggling at No. 3 doubles and we've been trying to do something to get us feeling a little more solid at each position. There's a lot of pressure at one and two when we're struggling at three."

On Sunday, the Blue Devils will fight for their second Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season against a young Georgia Tech team. Over spring break, Duke suffered a shocking loss at the hands of league foe Florida State, but it hopes to continue the same dominance it has achieved over conference opponents during Lapidus' six years in Durham.

"We feel like we're going to win the vast majority of our matches in the conference," Lapidus said. "We lose very few conference matches, so [the loss to the Seminoles] just woke us up a little bit. The Florida State match has to actually stay with us a little bit so we don't have a repeat performance."