It wasn't the way Megan Miller wanted to start her year.
William & Mary's Delphine Troch ousted the nation's 14th-ranked player from the second round of the top flight singles competition at the William & Mary Invitational in Williamsburg, Va., 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, Saturday, putting a damper on the Blue Devils' season-opening tournament.
Duke's top player and the tournament's second seed missed a would-be rematch with Wake Forest's Mariel Verban, the early favorite for conference player of the year honors and the player who ended Miller's season a year ago in the third round of the NCAA tournament.
Fellow junior Kathy Sell also made a second-round exit Saturday, falling in three sets to Princeton's Kavitha Krishnamurthy. Sell upset William & Mary's Carolijn Van Rossum in the first round. Van Rossum last year teamed up with Troch to upset Duke's second doubles squad in dual-team play, handing the then-No. 2 Blue Devils a stunning season-opening loss.
But fittingly enough both Blue Devils found consolation in the consolation round.
Miller knocked of Martina Nedelkova of Virginia Commonwealth, the 26th-ranked player in the nation, and Sell upended Andrea Ondrisova, also of VCU, to set up an all-Duke final in the consolation bracket.
A pair of breaks was all that separated the top two Blue Devils as Miller bested her teammate, 6-4, 6-4.
In flight B singles, second-seeded sophomore Erica Biro advanced to the semifinals before succumbing to Wake Forest's Marea Haus.
Freshman Prim Siripipat was the Blue Devils' top freshman of the weekend, joining Biro in the flight B semifinals before Janet Bergman, the Demon Deacons' probable second seed, ended her run with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Siripipat also came within a canceled final match of claiming the only Blue Devil flight victory of the tournament. Along with sophomore Ioana Plesu, the Duke duo made it to the flight B doubles final, which was canceled due to time constraints.
As much as the William & Mary Invitational was the first tournament of the season, it was almost another weekend of preparation. With just a little over a week of preparation under their collective belt, the women's tennis team is preparing for a slew of tournaments across the nation.
Miller and Biro will kick off the Blue Devil's unofficial tour of the nation this week at the T. Rowe Price Clay Court Championships, the first leg of the collegiate grand slam. Miller automatically qualified for the tournament, but Biro will have to survive three qualifying rounds in order to gain a spot in the 64-player draw.
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