Blue Devils reach Final Four

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - For only the second time in Duke women's tennis history, the Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four.

Even though Duke knocked off defending champions Texas with a grueling 5-4 victory in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships, the third-ranked Blue Devils could not come up with enough firepower to slip by No. 2 Stanford in the semifinals. The Cardinal outlasted Duke, 5-2, on Monday. The Blue Devils defeated Southern Cal, 5-2, in the opening round of the NCAAs on Saturday.

Undefeated and top-ranked Florida finished off Stanford to claim the national title on Tuesday, 5-2 at Florida State University.

"It was important for this team to be here in the semis and come close," Duke head coach Jody Hyden said. "Next year I think we'll handle this situation better and we'll come through in some of those big games and big points that we had this year. I think the team's already said we're already looking forward to next year. That's a great attitude to have.

"I'm very proud of them. We've got our heads up high. We had a good season, and we came close."

Despite losing to Stanford 5-2, the semifinal match seemed much closer than the score indicated. The Cardinal took the first point of the match when Sandra De Silva ousted junior Diana Spadea in a straight-set victory at No. 3, 6-1, 6-4. Junior Karen O'Sullivan quickly responded with a win for the Blue Devils at the sixth singles spot, easily downing Stanford's Amy Chiminello, 6-2, 6-2.

Junior Wendy Fix made a spectacular comeback at No. 5 singles to give Duke an early 2-1 lead in the match. Fix fell to an early deficit against PAC-10 singles champion Julie Scott, but rebounded for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.

"It was a very unusual match in that the girls with the best records on our team, the five and six players, did not win today," Stanford head coach Frank Brennan said following the match on Monday. "That was pretty amazing."

The Cardinal took a 4-2 lead into doubles play, and the Blue Devils faced an uphill battle, needing to win all three doubles contests to advance to the finals.

"Our team felt like we really had a few more matches than we won in singles," Hyden said. "Down 4-2, it took a lot of our momentum and a lot of our confidence away. That's sort of how we played at the end. But we still fought. This team wanted to win a lot and I'm very proud of them."

Two of the doubles matches were started when the final singles match ended, only to be interrupted by a lengthy rain delay after one game had been completed. The thunderstorms which doused Tallahassee caused an hour and a half interruption in play.

"I think [the rain delay] probably should have worked in our favor-it sort of put a stop to their momentum," Webb said. "But we came out pretty flat in our doubles, which is unfortunate."

Stanford captured all three of the opening sets in the doubles matches, leaving Duke in too large of a hole to climb out. The Cardinal came close to finishing off both Nos. 1 and 2 doubles at the same time, and Stanford's Scott ended the match with a winner on Duke's Fix and sophomore Laura Zifer, claiming a 6-1, 6-3 victory, which vaulted Stanford into the finals.

While Stanford had easy matches en route to the semifinal match--winning in singles over Clemson and Notre Dame, the Blue Devils struggled through a tough match with the Texas Longhorns in the quarterfinal round. In singles play, Duke picked up two quick victories at the fifth and sixth positions, as Luanne Spadea and O'Sullivan finished off their opponents in straight sets. Webb soon opened up a 3-0 lead for the Blue Devils as she eased by Farley Taylor, 6-1, 6-4.

Texas was not about to go quietly, however. The Longhorns took points at Nos. 2 and 4 in three-set victories. Diana Spadea and Texas' Sandy Sureephong duked out a three-hour match in which the Longhorns finally came out the winner, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2.

The win by Sureephong at No. 3 knotted the match score at three entering doubles play. At No. 3 doubles, Texas opened with a win as Laura Berendt and Melody Falco defeated Fix and Sanderson, 6-2, 7-6. The Longhorns did not have much time to relish in their 4-3 lead, as O'Sullivan and Luanne Spadea finished off Texas' Sureephong and Anne Pastor, 6-0, 6-4, evening the score at four.

The No. 1 doubles match remained on the court, with the winner advancing to the semifinals. Webb and Diana Spadea tangled with Longhorns Taylor and Cristina Moros. Moros, who defeated Sanderson in singles, began having leg cramps during her singles match.

Her condition worsened as the doubles match wore on, and she often left Taylor scrambling after balls and shots she could physically not chase down.

"You really can't expect any more from Cristina Moros," Texas head coach Jeff Moore said. "She's as tough a competitor as we've ever had. She just wouldn't give up, she refused to come off the court, even though she was in wrenching pain.... She's as good a doubles player on one leg as most people are on two."

Despite her injuries, Moros continued to battle, still returning shots within her reach. Although Webb and Spadea took the first set, Taylor and Moros came back and took a 6-5 lead in the second set before a rain delay forced the match off the courts for a half hour. After the delay, Texas broke Spadea's serve to send the match to a third set.

"I think both teams put in a phenomenal effort," Diana Spadea said. "It was hard for all of us.... Vanessa and I had been in that position before, so we weren't nervous. We were just trying to stay focused on what our original position is. When someone's cramping, it looks rather callous, but you just need to keep playing like everything's the same, because that can really be a distraction."

The Blue Devils and the Texas tandem kept fighting in the third set, before Duke broke open a 3-all tie to win the set 6-3. Moros fell on the court in pain when the match was finally over.

Duke took its first-round win from Southern Cal, downing the Trojans 5-2 on Saturday. Southern Cal captured the first two points of the match with quick victories at Nos. 2 and 3 singles.

The Blue Devils, however, would not allow another point for the Trojans for the rest of the day. Duke swept the remaining four singles points and clinched the match with a victory in doubles.

"It's nice to win 5-1, or something like that, but I'm actually glad that it went to the doubles, because we haven't played doubles in a long time," Hyden said. "For us to get there and be able to close them out in doubles gives us confidence. I can't say I'm always happy when it's close, but I'm glad that we were stretched, because I think it's a good test for us."

The Blue Devils fought not only tough opponents all week long, but the heat in Florida also took its toll on Duke.

"The conditions are brutal," Hyden said. "We have tried to do our best to prepare for this in North Carolina, but we just haven't had that much hot weather. We've scheduled a lot of our practices the last week from 1-4 and most of the time we either had very cold, 60-degree weather or we had rain. So we came down here feeling like we could handle it, but it was tough. I felt like we did a pretty good job of battling and competing in the heat."

Duke concludes its season with a 25-4 record, and a feeling of hope for next season. Unlike many of the other top programs, which have key seniors who will graduate, the Blue Devils return all of their players for next year.

"We already talked about next year," Webb said shortly after the loss to Stanford. "Now we all know each other pretty well, we did all that adjusting this year. Next year we can just focus on the national championship."