James Dean always held to one philosophy in life: dream your dreams for tomorrow, but live your life for today.
With enough young talent to possibly be the team of tomorrow and yet enough leaders to contend for the national championship now, women's tennis coach Jamie Ashworth and his No. 3 Blue Devils (12-3) are holding tight to Dean's view.
However, after their loss to No. 1 Florida (14-0) on Sunday, their second setback in as many contests, the Blue Devils have been doing more dreaming than winning against the top teams.
Though the Blue Devils kept most of the singles matches tight, Florida, the 1996 NCAA champions, blitzed Ashworth's squad Sunday, 5-1.
"You look at the score, but it was closer than that," said Ashworth, emphasizing lost match and set points. "[But] I hope this is a learning experience. We played both [Stanford and Florida] well, but we had chances to do better and we didn't."
The story for Duke was what almost was. A 6-3, 6-4 victory over M.C. White by No. 2 seed Kristin Sanderson snapped a string of losses and sparked a Blue Devil comeback.
"After she got that win, we started on a little roll," Ashworth said. "It kind of lifted our team."
Trailing 3-1, that "little roll" nearly avalanched into a Duke upset, with its intended beneficiaries Blue Devil freshmen Megan Miller and Kathy Sell. Some three hours after the 1 p.m. start time, both Duke netters remained on the court locked in three-set duels as the outcome of the match remained uncertain.
"When [Miller and Sell] were both out there, we were five minutes away from being three all and then when Kathy lost, that really took the air out of us," Ashworth said. "It was tough to get every one up again right away. It was a big momentum swing, getting that fourth point knowing that they're not going to have to play doubles, and they can go ahead and close it out."
Despite topping the team in wins, neither player was able to pull out a third-set victory. Sell, who squandered five match points, dropped the deciding set 7-5. Miller, conversely, fought off a pair of match points and stormed back from a 5-3 deficit to take the second set. She could not, however, overcome a 5-0 margin in the final set, falling 6-3 in her first defeat of the dual-team season.
A visit from Texas Friday proved to be foreshadowing of sorts as the No. 7 Longhorns topped Duke, 5-2. Duke's No. 1 seed, Vanessa Webb, scored an upset over No. 3 Sandy Sureephong. Miller, No. 63, added the other Blue Devil point, topping No. 75 Laura Berendt. But, like Sunday's contest, three of the remaining contests all narrowly went Texas' way-decided in a tiebreak and two 7-5 margins.
Duke began its spring-break schedule on a high note, however, leveling both 10th-ranked BYU and No. 36 UNLV. But as for Duke's recent performance, missed chances are beginning to pile up.
"There are four or five teams that on the right day can win," said Ashworth of the nation's top teams. "We've had our chances, and we're letting those chances slip a little bit."
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