It was almost three years ago exactly that Kathy Sell sat in her Moorestown, N.J. home, watching what was at first a small trickle of college recruitment letters turn into an all out postal deluge.
She knew she wasn't the best player in the nation, but she knew she was good enough to go anywhere.
All the big names were there-Stanford, Duke, UCLA, Florida.
Her whole life she thought she wanted to play for Stanford, but when the time came Sell chose Duke. She wanted to do what had never been done before.
At Duke, that means an NCAA title.
"It's something I remind myself of every time I step on the court," Sell said. "I want to be a part of a program that builds a tradition at a school, in comparison to a Stanford who's won the title so many times."
Despite being one of the dominant teams of the decade, the then- 10-time defending ACC champions of Sell's freshman year had never made it as far as the finals of the NCAA tournament.
Three semifinal appearances-no titles. No victories over Stanford, no victories over Florida. Zero for the '90s.
Then last season, the Blue Devils finally managed to shake the curse of the Cardinal. A 5-4 victory put Duke into the finals for the first time in school history.
But they had one obstacle left to overcome-Andy Brandi and the Florida Gators. Twenty-one times the two teams have met, and meeting No. 20 last season went just as 18 of the previous 19-a Gator victory.
The two teams met again this year at the nation's second most prestigious team tournament, the Team Indoors in Madison, Wisc. Despite leading 4-2 over the Gators, the Blue Devils dropped series meeting No. 21 to the Gators.
"That was as close as we could have come to winning," Sell said. "You don't remember it happening; it feels like a surreal couple of minutes [as the lead vanishes], then you're off the court. That won't ever happen again."
Which brings Sell and company to spring break '99 and a rematch with those same Florida Gators-ranked No. 1 in the nation and maybe the final obstacle. Although the players say they don't focus on it, the numbers are hard to dispute. As No. 2 Duke has grown in prominence and ranking, a victory over Florida remains elusive.
"Every time we play Florida, we keep getting closer and closer, and I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to the ultimate goal, but at the same time it feels like it's far away," she said. "We were so close to beating them last year, I felt it. We can't let that happen again. It's gonna be a big test for us."
While the focus of the tennis community may be on the upcoming No. 1 vs. 2 matchup in Gainesville, Duke is looking no further ahead than Texas. Last year, the Blue Devils got caught looking ahead and were defeated by the Longhorns in Durham.
This year, it's a different story. While the match with the No. 6 Longhorns was scheduled as preparation for Florida, for Duke it's a chance for payback and an opportunity to prove that, despite two losses, it is rightfully one of the top two teams in the nation.
"We're definitely treating this match very seriously," Sell said. "We're not nearly the same team we were [last year]. We want to prove to them and the rest of the nation we're ranked where we belong, that we belong among the top in the nation."
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