Capitalizing on quick starts in both their first and second-round matches this past weekend, the Duke women's tennis team advanced to the NCAA round of 16 in Stone Mountain, Ga., which will take place today. After easily disposing of Campbell 4-0 in the first round last Friday and likewise cruising past No. 28 Alabama 4-0 in the second round Saturday, Duke (26-1) now looks to its match against 14th-seeded Texas (19-8) Thursday at the Lincoln Tennis Center.
Duke's No. 1 singles player, freshman Ansley Cargill, likes her team's prospects for advancing deep into the NCAA field, especially if they are able to build an early lead against their opponents, which has been a staple of Duke's tournament run so far.
"It's important to get off to an early lead because it gives you motivation," Cargill said. "It's sort of a domino effect--if one person looks at another court and sees her teammate up, she will try to finish her match as quickly as the other person has finished theirs. It's a really positive effect, especially when you can see all the courts."
Building on their confidence from Friday's victory, the Blue Devils posted their second straight 4-0 victory Saturday, this time over a battle-tested, yet overmatched Alabama squad. Duke seized the doubles point with wins by the Amanda Johnson/Hillary Adams team at the second slot and the Kathy Sell/Katie Granson duo at No. 3 doubles. Johnson continued her domination over the Crimson Tide with a 42-minute, 6-0, 6-0 victory over Bama's Jenny Ketchum. Sell soon followed her teammate into the clubhouse with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Weyli Chang. After a first game that lasted nearly 20 minutes, Cargill concluded Duke's sweep in easy fashion in the No. 1 flight, defeating Alabama's Emma Berard, the country's 42nd-ranked player, by a score of 6-1, 6-2.
Despite his team's dominant victory over the Crimson Tide, Duke coach Jamie Ashworth felt that the Blue Devils will benefit greatly from their match last Saturday, citing the constant pressure Alabama applied in nearly every match.
"[Alabama] has played as tough a schedule as any team in the country," Ashworth said. "They've played Florida twice, and they've played Georgia and Tennessee. That's six matches against teams in the top six in the country, so they've been in tough matches. So it was good for us, especially for our doubles play. It was good to finally play good doubles on all three courts."
The improvement of the doubles teams was especially evident against Alabama, as the three Duke teams--all of which were created by Ashworth in the Blue Devils' final regular-season match April 15 against Clemson--seemed at ease with each other. According to Ashworth, the gelling of Duke's doubles teams not only puts the Blue Devils in an advantageous position heading into singles, but it also builds the confidence of the team's players.
"The doubles point is a huge momentum builder," Ashworth said. "If you get up one point, it takes so much off the singles players... and puts more pressure on your opponents. We were able to get that point today and that's been our trend the last 10 or 12 matches."
In the Blue Devils' first-round match against the Camels, Duke demonstrated its might early and never looked back, sacrificing only four games at the first and third doubles flight, and securing a doubles point for the home team. Sell and sGranson glided to an easy 8-2 victory at the three spot, while Cargill and senior co-captain Megan Miller finished soon after, defeating Campbell's Carmen Linder and Laurence Poujoulat 8-2.
The results of singles play were quite similar, as Cargill, Miller, and the third-seed Johnson all dominated their Camel opponents by a score of 6-0, 6-1.
"I felt like we were up against Mike Tyson out there," Campbell coach David Johnson said after the match. "I knew [Duke] was going to come out early in doubles and singles and really try to take it to us.
"The more balls [the Blue Devils] hit, the more confident they get."
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