William and Mary has a spanking new outdoor tennis facility, a four-match winning streak, the No. 11 ranking in the country and a seven-year home unbeaten streak against the Blue Devils.
But Thursday, it just didn't matter.
William and Mary (12-5), with all the mental edges it could possibly ask for, simply could not compensate for its inferior physical capabilities against a streaking fourth-ranked Duke squad (14-3), as the Blue Devils triumphed on the road 6-1.
"For the first time all season, we put a whole match together," Blue Devil coach Jamie Ashworth said. "From all three doubles matches on down to all six of our singles matches, we played great tennis today. We're definitely getting better."
Duke's success surprisingly stemmed from its doubles play--an aspect of its game that has plagued the team throughout the season.
Hillary Adams and Kelly McCain notched a bitterly fought 9-7 victory against the blazing Tribe duo of Jessyca Arthur and Candice Fuchs at the No. 1 doubles spot. The Blue Devils' second-seeded doubles team of Julie DeRoo and Amanda Johnson barely held on 8-6 against Angela Buergis and Delphine Troch, and the Katie Granson/Ioana Plesu combination annihilated William and Mary's helpless team of Kari Olsen and Amy Wei 8-3.
"You can see it in our doubles play right now--that we're playing with a lot of confidence in each other, and we carried that into our singles play, too," Ashworth said. "Because of that confidence in each other, we were able to play well from top to bottom today."
At the bottom, No. 6 singles, Granson recorded her best performance of the season. Systematically dismantling Olsen with a flurry of groundstrokes, Granson left Williamsburg, Va., with more than a win--she walked away with a 6-0, 6-0 message to all those grumbling that she had not fully recovered from her off-season shoulder injury.
"I was really proud of Katie," Ashworth said. "She had been struggling, but she came out hot today. She didn't think about the score. Instead, she thought about winning individual points, and it worked out."
McCain, the country's fourth-ranked player, spat out another opponent in a 6-1, 6-3 exercise in dominance over Arthur. At No. 3 singles, DeRoo glided to a straight set, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Buergis.
The Blue Devils' only setback occurred at the fifth-singles slot, where Lena Sherbakov's third-set tiebreak victory over Plesu saved the Tribe from an embarrassing homecourt shutout.
Considering its checkered past in Williamsburg, Duke did not anticipate being the perpetrators of such a thorough thrashing Thursday.
"It is by no means an easy place to play," Ashworth said. "We've had teams that went to the NCAA Finals and to the Final Four that have lost up here. We just put it together today."
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