As the NCAA Tennis Individual Championships got into full swing last week, both men's and women's teams had members advance deep into the tournaments.
Freshman Vanessa Webb led the charge for the women in Tallahassee, Fla., claiming two victories to move into the quarterfinals of the singles competition. Webb also teamed with junior Diana Spadea to advance to the quarterfinals in doubles competition.
Webb, seeded third in the singles tournament, easily dismantled her first two opponents. She trounced Sandra DeSilva of Stanford, 6-4, 6-0, in the first round and defeated Agnes Muzamel of Mississippi, 6-4, 6-1, in the second.
"She just overpowered both of them with her serve and her aggressive style of play," Duke women's tennis head coach Jody Hyden said.
In Friday's quarterfinal action, Webb faced No. 4 Jill Craybas of Florida. Craybas, a senior, used her experience and aggressive gameplan to down Webb 6-4, 7-6.
"It was a tight match all the way through," Hyden said. "But Craybas just handled the pressure situations better. Not necessarily a lot better, but she just stepped up and played aggressive under pressure. Vanessa played a little bit defensive when she needed to play aggressive and then when she did try to play aggressive, she missed some shots.
"It was just sort of a senior playing a freshman-Jill was very comfortable in those situations and played well. It's not that Vanessa played like a freshman, it's just that Jill played like a senior and handled the tough situations better. I'm sure Vanessa will handle those situations better in the future."
Webb finished her freshman campaign as one of the highest ranked players in the nation and was named the 1996 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rookie of the Year.
"I thought she had a great year as a freshman," Hyden said. "I think her goal was to be top 10 in the country, and she reached that. Coming in, I didn't know how she would do against some of the top ranked players, but she did very well."
In doubles, Webb and Spadea fell to the second-seeded Stanford team of Ania Bleszynski and Katie Schlukebir, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.
"They played really well the first set, and then they didn't really play well the rest of the match," Hyden said. "We had a little bit of a breakdown in the beginning of the second set where we got down 3-0, and after that we never really gained any kind of a lead or any kind of momentum. Once [Stanford] got back in the match, they felt like they could win and they controlled the match from there."
Webb and Spadea had reached the round of 8 by defeating Vicky Maes and Khristen Pietrucha of Arizona 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
The other Duke tandem in the draw, junior Wendy Fix and sophomore Laura Zifer, fell last Thursday, 6-2, 6-2, to the fifth-ranked team of Dawn Buth and Stephanie Nickitas of Florida.
The headliner for the men, who played in Athens, Ga., was senior Rob Chess. Chess, ranked 13th nationally, advanced to the second round of the singles competition before bowing out. He lost 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, to Manual Ramirez of Southern California, the same team which eliminated the Blue Devils earlier in the week.
Chess began the match strong, but the long week of action finally took its toll as he faded in the second two sets.
"It was such a long week, and he just sort of mentally and physically fatigued after that first set," Duke men's tennis head coach Jay Lapidus said. "He went down a break early in the second set and had trouble regrouping."
The problem was compounded as Ramirez demonstrated talent far exceeding his No. 43 ranking throughout the match.
"Ramirez is a real hot and cold sort of player, and he just started playing unbelievably well," Lapidus said. "Rob wasn't serving as well those last two sets, and the other guy just climbed all over him. Rob was just really frustrated with the level of play the other guy was able to bring himself to."
Chess leaves Duke as the school's all-time winningest men's player with a 112-41 record.
"He was a number six or seven player his first year, so to become the all-time winningest player at Duke is phenomenal," Lapidus said. "He's a great kid whose worked really hard and represented the program in the best way possible. So, I am really happy to see how well he ended up doing at Duke."
Chess received national recognition at the tournament when he was awarded the prestigious ITA John Van Nostrand Memorial Award. The award is a stipend designed to assist college graduates pursue a professional tennis career.
"There are only three or four national awards," Lapidus said. "So for Rob to win one of those is really a great honor for him. He has a real chance to do something on the pro circuit because he has so many weapons-the huge serve and the big forehand. I think he might make some headway out there on the pro tour. It will be interesting to see how he does."
In doubles, freshman Dmitry Muzyka and junior Sven Koehler lost their first round match, 7-6, 7-5, to Steve Baldas and Jamie Laschinger of Georgia.
"It was a tough draw," Lapidus said. "They played the number one team from Georgia which is an experienced one that has always done very, very well. It was close-we had a set point in the first set and had a chance to win that one.
"I was happy with the level we were able reach in the doubles-one or two points here or there and things could have been different. Obviously they didn't, but we played really well, I thought."
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