Women's tennis tries to regroup after losing 3 key seniors

She knew the drill.

She knew how it went, she knew what to say and, for the third time in her life, she knew exactly what was to be written down.

It had come a little bit later this year, postponed three matches into the season, but as Kathy Sell sat among her seven teammates, pen in hand and a blank page full of everything her junior season would be in front of her, she knew exactly what would go beneath team goals.

1) Win National Team Indoors

2) Win ACCs

3) Win a national championship.

Welcome to Duke tennis Y2K.

"Our team can be better this year," she says boldly. "We can be better than last year, I honestly believe that."

The trio of seniors the Blue Devils lost to graduation was nearly a top-10 team in their own right.

There was Vanessa Webb, who, in four years had not just rewritten the Duke record book, she had made it her personal scrapbook. But the four-time All-American performer, who won the national championship as a junior and was simultaneously ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles, had taken her last swing as a Blue Devil.

As had her doubles' partner Karen Goldstein and No. 2 seed Kristin Sanderson.

But elite programs in women's tennis never drop entirely off the map, and the Blue Devils did what elite teams can do-recruit the best.

Entering his third full season at the helm of the women's tennis program, Ashworth brought in one of Duke's top recruiting classes ever-a distinct stamp on a team almost entirely composed of his recruiting decisions.

Headlined by the hard-serving Hillary Adams and Katie Granson, the three-member freshman class-which also includes a scrappy Prim Sirippipat-the freshmen are turning the Blue Devils into the attacking team that Ashworth set out to build when he first took over in 1997.

But these freshmen will have something else to contend with-pressure.

In absence of guaranteed points at the top of the lineup, a luxury that Webb brought every match, the Duke freshmen will likely have to fill at least two spots every match.

But the cupboard isn't exactly bare at the top of the Blue Devils' lineup. Junior Megan Miller likely will move up to the top slot in the lineup, followed by former doubles partner Sell, a tandem that has paced the Blue Devils in wins the last two seasons.

Add in Erica Biro, arguably Duke's most improved player from last season, at No. 3 and the resurgent Brooke Siebel at No. 5, and the Duke lineup, while nowhere near as intimidating as the past two seasons, Duke may not have too many worries.

"We can't go into any match with a guaranteed win at one or two," Sell said. "We have to fight for every match, which is going to make us better in the long run."

And it's the long run that this Duke team, like every one before it in the last five seasons, is made for.

So whenever anyone asks Kathy Sell what this team wants to do in a rebuilding year, expect a smile, followed by the same thing she has been saying for three years.

"We're going for a national championship," she says. "And we can do it."