Somewhere, Sisyphus has to be smiling, maybe even empathizing with the women's tennis team. Damned eternally to push a rock up a hill, each time coming closer and closer to the top before the rock rolls back down, he might just know a little bit about the Duke situation. After three consecutive semifinal losses in the National Women's Team Indoor Championships, the Blue Devils pushed their proverbial rock one notch further this year before again succumbing, this time in the finals to defending NCAA champion Stanford.
Of course, Sisyphus wouldn't have been the only person smiling. Duke coach Jamie Ashworth was cracking quite a few smiles this weekend in Madison, Wisc., as his team, though finishing second, produced its best performance at this tournament. Heck, he might have even given Sisyphus a pat on the back.
"We played really well," Ashworth said. "This is the best we've ever done here, the first time we've made it to the finals of a national tournament. We still have work to do, but this tournament is a good barometer for where we need to be in May."
The Duke barometer might not have been dropping before the championship on Sunday, but the barometer outside must have been, as a gigantic storm of a top-five matchup loomed just over the horizon. Unfortunately for the No. 3 Blue Devils (6-1), it was the juggernaut of No. 5 Stanford (10-0) and their 30-match win streak which best weathered the damage, triumphing 5-3 in a match every bit as tight as it should have been.
"[The match] was so close; if we could have won a point here or there, we could have won the match," said junior Kristin Sanderson, who narrowly lost in a three-set affair. "We just need to continue working because there is not that much difference between [Duke, Stanford and other top teams]."
The Blue Devils began on the wrong foot Sunday as soon as Anne Kremer, tabbed by Ashworth as "undoubtedly the best player in [college] tennis," set foot on the court and dispatched No. 7 Vanessa Webb. Of course, the same fate awaited Mary Pierce when Kremer dropped the world's No. 6-ranked professional in December.
The rest of the singles lineup largely followed suit, as Duke managed only two wins, a three-set decision by fourth seed Megan Miller and a straight-set thrashing by Kathy Sell. These two freshmen, who combined for a perfect 8-0 singles mark in the tournament, provided not only the margin needed for the match to continue onto the doubles slate, but the spark for the team throughout much of the tournament.
"I wasn't sure what to expect of [Miller and Sell]," Ashworth said. "They had never had the pressure of a national event. They both played, winning when we needed it, actually keeping us in the Stanford match, and for freshmen that's encouraging."
Though it had been expected of Miller to start and win in singles since she was recruited, the same could not be said of Sell. Recruited primarily for her doubles ability, Sell showed herself more than capable of carrying the burden of a starting singles spot, giving up only 14 games in four matches, all against top-15 schools.
"[Sell] is playing fifth seed and dominating there," Ashworth said. "She's working really hard in singles and wants to be known as a singles player. She did a great job this weekend."
The story of the tournament and this season for Duke, however, continued to be the excellent play of Sanderson. Returning from a sophomore season she described as "really frustrating," Ashworth's second seed was perfect in the three Blue Devil victories over Mississippi, William & Mary and California, including an upset of No. 14 Ivona Milhailova of Mississippi.
"[Sanderson] is definitely playing great now," Ashworth said, "and it has shown to her that she belongs in this lineup and that she can play with the best at a high level of competition."
Duke's No. 1 seed, Webb, generated a few highlights of her own this weekend. Despite a recent slump, having lost the previous two matches before the tournament, Webb was able to knock off the nation's No. 3 player, Agnes Muzamel of Mississippi.
"In terms of confidence it was a big match for her," Ashworth said. "She just came out and won the big points. [The regained confidence] will help her out."
For a squad still battling questions of its place in relation to its highly successful predecessor and highly successful tradition, this weekend showed that if Duke is not up to those standards yet, it may be well on the way.
"This team has come a long way so far," Sanderson said. "We've got things we need to work on, but in terms of ability, there is no difference between this year's team and last year's, and [this year's squad] is more cohesive. So maybe we're even better because of that."
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