Women's tennis hopes for national championship

Coach Jamie Ashworth has been one of the nation's top recruiters, but has yet to capture a national title. With the arrival of star freshmen Ansley Cargill and Amanda Johnson, this year's squad may be his best yet, and winning it all is the Blue Devils' goal after a dominant performance last weekend at the ACC championships.

Their 22-1 match record puts them in the elite of the nation and should have their confidence riding high, as should their 4-1 rout of Wake Forest in the ACC finals Sunday.

"It was good because it was a lot closer than [4-1]," Ashworth said. "Getting some good confidence over the singles should really help us. We out-thought them even though they played a better match than us, and that's encouraging."

Ashworth said the big boost from last weekend will also come from the knowledge that the Blue Devils have the depth to beat top opponents in a number of ways. National No. 2 Cargill ended up not having to win her match, which is good for the team to see since Cargill will be facing some brutal competition at No. 1 singles.

"I'm just glad our team pulled through," Cargill said of not having to finish her finals match. "It helps us to know that not just the seniors can win big matches for us."

Regardless of this greater belief in its depth, Duke and everyone else will be clear-cut underdogs to No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Georgia, who handed the Blue Devils their only loss of the season last February.

The Cardinal have the nation's top singles player in Laura Granville, who is undefeated and who already handled Cargill once this season. With the competition at the top being so fierce, Ashworth may again need to rely on depth to upset Stanford.

He will also need strong performances from seniors Kathy Sell and Megan Miller, who should fill the three and four slots. Miller struggled at times this season, but her game has been peaking of late, including winning the MVP at last weekend's ACC's.