At this point last summer, the women's tennis team was already focused on a singular goal-a goal it maintained from day one to the NCAAs: winning a national championship.
This season, the Blue Devils are developing another motive. It's not quite as ambitious, but equally important-becoming a team.
After losing four seniors and freshman-turned-pro Karin Miller from last season's third-ranked squad, Duke looks ahead to the fall with only a pair of juniors, Kristin Sanderson and Vanessa Webb, returning to the six-player starting lineup. And Jamie Ashworth will begin his first full season as head coach with a new assistant, expected to be hired the first week of August.
But for Ashworth, the opportunity at hand is to take advantage of the overhaul and introduce a concept all-too-forgotten in recent years: six individuals on the court comprise a team.
"In the past, we just haven't played together as a team," Ashworth said. "It is something that has to be developed from September 1. Not necessarily on the court, but I think they have to do and the coaching staff has to do more to get them to be a team off the court.
"You can't force people to like each other. But once they're in between the lines on the tennis court, they have to be a team and they have to believe and really want each other to win."
Ashworth realizes the high turnover offers a rare opportunity, in effect, to alter the entire face of his program. Although a great deal of talent was lost, most, if not all, will be regained. Luckily for Duke, players with physical ability have started to pass through its system on a regular basis.
Talent has enabled the Blue Devils to cruise to 10 straight Atlantic Coast Conference titles and a berth in the last two NCAA semifinals. And yet, each of the past two seasons, the last two champions, Stanford and Florida, have proven they have something more than just talent. They beat Duke because they stuck together.
"[Beating a Stanford or Florida] comes from trusting and building," Ashworth said. "We'll do a lot of that stuff come fall. We'll spend more time on that than we ever have because that's what it comes down to at NCAAs. It has to be that we win more as a team."
If the Blue Devils are going to win as a team, they'll need to do it with at least two freshmen in the starting lineup. Megan Miller and Kathy Sell are a done deal, and Ashworth is working on adding either another freshman or a transfer from another school who has received a waiver so that she can immediately play.
Miller's ability is akin to that of Webb and Karin Miller, the last two ITA Rookies of the Year. Her current professional singles ranking is 372, and Ashworth feels that her singles play, featuring a baseline style similar to Karin Miller's, is the strength of her game.
"Megan is total grit on the court," he said. "She's somebody who you're glad she's on your team because you don't want to be playing against her. She's someone who has that never-say-die attitude on the court."
Ashworth considers Sell, on the other hand, perhaps the best doubles player in the nation coming out of juniors. Her ability in doubles looms large. With so many new players, Duke has no set doubles pairs heading into the fall.
"We have to come up with three doubles teams, where we can win three doubles matches," Ashworth said. "That's what we're going to have to do for most of the fall, and it might hurt their individual results as far as the NCAAs, but the team comes first. We're here to win the team championship first."
A key to enacting Ashworth's goal is finding a leader who can take charge. Laura Zifer may well be the answer. The senior missed most of last year due to lingering effects from the 1996 NCAAs, in which she suffered severe dehydration.
If she can play, however, Zifer brings past success and leadership to a team sorely lacking in both areas She closed out her freshman season with a 38-6 singles mark and was named ACC Rookie of the Year. The following season, Zifer spent time at the top three singles spots, but was ultimately slowed last year by weakness and fatigue.
For a season in which team chemistry is crucial, having a senior leader is essential.
"She's preparing herself to play," Ashworth said. "She's extremely excited about getting back and playing, and her play is going to be a real key for us. I don't want to put too much pressure on her, but a lot of our season depends on what she does."
With new faces and a new team concept, both players and coaches acknowledge their uncertainty about just how well this team will turn out. The past few years, Duke has joined Stanford and Florida as the three most dominant teams in the country.
But now the term "rebuilding" is being stuck on a team that feels it might be another year away from contending for the NCAA crown.
"We're really not quite sure what to expect this year because we have so many new players coming in," Sanderson said. "It's not like last year where we had a goal from the start. I think this is a rebuilding year, but we can still be pretty good."
Sanderson is trying to shake off an up-and-down 1997, a season limited by a nagging leg injury. But Ashworth said that right now the junior is playing better than she has in a while-and having fun in the process.
Fun is something Ashworth feels the entire team can experience, but only if it comes together as a unit and becomes more supportive both on and off the court. Although Duke might be a year away from contending for the national title, the change in philosophy could pay instant dividends, both now and in the future.
"I think our team realizes that this is a rebuilding year," Ashworth said. "People think we're an extremely young team, but I think we're going to be better than people think. We'll be expected to drop from [No. 3] just because we're so young, probably to somewhere between six and 10. I think we can easily be top-four.
"But as a team, it'll probably be more of a team than its ever been."
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