GAINESVILLE, Fla. - She may have had to wait a few days, but a week that started off in uncharacteristic disappointment is turning into a typical Vanessa Webb week.
After losing in both the team and singles competition, Duke's most decorated tennis player ever added another award to her resume as she became the first Duke player to receive the Honda Award as collegiate tennis' top player Tuesday.
"It's so great to be recognized," she said. "Last year I won the NCAA championship and didn't win the award, and this year I finally did. It's just such an honor."
Webb was undefeated in all 31 dual team matches this season and was named the ACC's Player of the Year for the second straight season, leading Duke to a 27-4 mark and a fourth straight national semifinal appearance.
But the 1998 NCAA singles champion is still eyeing one more addition to her trophy case.
A semifinalist in last year's tournament, Webb and Karen Goldstein stand two wins away from becoming the first doubles team from Duke to ever win a national title. After an uninspiring victory over Ohio State on in the round of 32 Monday and a Tulsa default on Tuesday, the senior duo, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, dismantled Amanda Basica and Annica Cooper of UCLA, 6-1, 6-2 to advance to today's semifinals.
"Anything would have been an improvement on Monday," Goldstein said. "We had a chance to recover a little bit by not playing yesterday, and we came out and played well today."
The Blue Devils top team will get a chance to improve upon last year in the semifinals as they meet up with Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen of California, the same team that eliminated Webb and Goldstein from last year's tournament.
Duke owns the lone meeting between the two teams this year, a semifinal showdown in the Rolex Indoor Championships.
However, past history proved to be of little use in the singles tournament as the defending champion Webb was eliminated in her third match. After fighting through to the round of 16, a visibly out of synch Webb fell to Georgia's Vanessa Castellano, a player she had beaten in dual-match play earlier in the year.
"I was just off," Webb said. "I made so many errors at the net that I don't normally make. I think I started to panic a little bit because I normally make them, and I didn't know what was going on."
Sophomore Megan Miller, ranked No. 19 in the nation and making her first tournament appearance advanced to the second round before falling to ACC rival Mariel Verban, Wake Forest's top player.
Senior Kristin Sanderson failed to advance past the first round, losing a three-set battle with Stanford's Gabriella Lastra.
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