New job. New location half the way across the nation. Same pesky younger sister.
For Jenny Garrity, the story has to be getting old. As head coach of the N.C. State women's tennis team last year, she watched as her younger sister, Duke's Kathy Sell, knocked off Wolfpack player after player en route to an undefeated ACC mark at No. 5 singles.
Then, with an off-season job relocation to Kansas, Garrity had to assume she had seen the last of her little sister. That was until this weekend's William and Mary Invitational, where she once again watched Sell triumph over one of her prodigies en route to the flight B singles championship, one of three flight championships for Duke on the weekend.
"At first I was kind of hesitant about playing against my sisters and their teams and my friends too," Sell said. "I always played hesitantly and tight. But I'm getting used to it, and I'm getting more out of it than I thought I would. I'm learning to block it out. In the match with [Cheryl Malliah of Kansas] when [Garrity] came out on the court at first I immediately lost the first three points. Then I said I've just got to do my job and she has to do hers."
Sell rebounded to win the game and the match handily. As it would turn out, the focus she acquired against Malliah proved invaluable in the singles finals, where she defeated teammate Karen Goldstein.
"I don't think anyone likes playing their teammates. It's one of the most uncomfortable situations I've been in," Sell said of playing Goldstein, who had beaten Sell in their only prior meeting. "Like playing against my sister, I just have to tell myself I'm playing against a competitor. I have a responsibility to myself and to the team to play my hardest either way."
Goldstein's weekend was far from a disappointment, despite the loss in the singles finals. Although partially slowed by a foot injury that had kept her out of practice until last week, Goldstein teamed up with Vanessa Webb to dominate the rest of the 10-team field in flight A doubles. The top-ranked duo had little trouble taking the title, winning the final match in an 8-0 whitewash.
"Karen may be a little disappointed with her tournament, but she did good," head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "She was hurt, but she was able to compete. To make the finals injured is really great.
"Then in doubles she and Vanessa played well. The first round was a little tougher than they thought, and it was their first match in four months. They have to get used to playing together, but I was expecting that. Then, once they got their timing back together, they took off from there."
Not to be outdone by the returnees, freshman Erica Biro romped through the flight C singles draw, knocking off Delphine Troch of William and Mary in the finals.
"I think she was a little surprised, coming into Duke trying to prove she belongs on a great team which is essentially the same team as last year, " Ashworth said. "She earned the respect from the girls on our team and in the nation. They knew about the returnees, but they weren't sure about our recruiting class, and this weekend she showed them."
Perhaps most impressive about the weekend for the Blue Devils was that they dominated the B and C flights despite having Webb, the nation's top singles player, sit out.
"I think it shows our depth," Ashworth said. "People know how good our top six is, but what they know now is we have even more depth than last year, and we're a better team than last year. With no Vanessa everybody moves up, so Kathy moves from C to B, and still wins it. It shows we can sit people out in duals and still be successful."
With no tournaments scheduled until the Riviera All-American in mid-October, Ashworth has plenty of time to work out the early-season kinks. With the NCAA Title or Bust mentality of this team, that shouldn't prove too difficult.
"The biggest thing that we're going to have to work on is not giving away free points," Ashworth said. "I think we're the best team in the country if we play as smart as we can. It's just decision making, any player on this team can hit any shot I call. We just need to stop giving away points, and if we learn that we will be the best team in the country."
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