The women's tennis team could easily have gotten frustrated after being upset by No. 49 Illinois 4-3 Feb. 23. Instead, led by sophomore Kelly McCain, the Blue Devils used the loss as motivation, soundly defeating Michigan 7-0 Friday evening and Purdue 6-1 Sunday afternoon.
"It was a big confidence booster for us to finally beat teams solidly," said McCain, who earlier in the week became only the seventh player in Duke history to be ranked No. 1 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national rankings. "We tried to take something from the Illinois match and put it toward these matches, and hopefully it helped us win these easier."
In singles play against Michigan, McCain defeated Michelle DaCosta 6-3, 6-1. The only closely challenged match came at the second spot, where junior Amanda Johnson put away a feisty Kavitha Tipimeni 7-5 in the
The Blue Devils kept the same lineup against Purdue, who handed Duke its only blemish of the weekend. Freshman Julia Smith, who did not play in the Illinois match due to injury, lost to the Boilermakers' Amy Walgenbach 4-6, 3-6.
The victories improved Duke to 11-1 overall, while Michigan and Purdue dropped to 5-3 and 4-5, respectively.
The Blue Devils dominated many matches from the onset, and head coach Jamie Ashworth said this early success helped to put away Duke's opponents.
"The thing we did really well was we came out and got off to good starts on every court, and we didn't give either of those teams anything to feed off of at all-nothing positive," he said. "We could look at a court and say, 'Alright, we're winning there, we're winning there,' and kind of emotionally get into the match."
For Purdue in particular, this intimidation, combined with the absence of two key players because of injuries, served as a psychological double-whammy for the overwhelmed Boilermakers.
"I felt like, given the circumstances, overall we played a pretty strong match," Purdue head coach Mat Iandolo said. "It's just that when you're playing with a couple of your best players out against one of the most talented teams in the country in their home place, chances are you're going to come up on the short end."
Despite the Blue Devils' concentration of talent, Ashworth is trying to emphasize with his team that every match could be another Illinois.
"We talked a little bit about what I like to call the 'should-could' factor, where we should win, but they could," he said. "You always have to have that kind of respect for your opponent."
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