The women's tennis team has met the enemy, and it is Marisha Malhotra. The top-seeded Tennessee senior singlehandedly ended the tournament for a pair of Duke singles players and a doubles team at the Rolex Indoor qualifier in Chapel Hill this weekend.
However, the Blue Devils were still able to do a little damage of their own. Junior Karen Goldstein raced all the way to the finals, qualifying for the main draw of the Rolex Indoor Championships.
"The goal of that tournament is to get to the finals," Duke coach Jamie Ashworth said. "[Karen] went in there with that goal and she accomplished it. I think Karen played not neccesarily better than she has all fall, but smarter, and for her I think that was a big step."
The 32nd-ranked Goldstein lived up to her second seed in the tournament, knocking out Vanderbilt's Kristen Radford and Atlantic Coast Conference rival Dorothea Kurz of Wake Forest before succumbing to the 12th-ranked Malhotra in a three-set final.
"I'm definitely playing better now," Goldstein said. "I feel like I've gotten back into tournament mode."
Malhotra advanced to the finals via a 6-4, 7-5 decision over junior Kristen Sanderson, and upended junior Vanessa Webb and Sanderson in doubles in the semifinals.
Goldstein will join Webb at the Rolex Indoor Championships in Dallas, Texas, Feb. 6-8.
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