With a trip all the way out to the west coast, the Duke women's tennis team had to make it worth their while. The doubles team of senior Amanda Johnson and freshman Tory Zawacki certainly did this with their upset win over the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Riviera All-American top seeded pair. Johnson and Zawacki commanded the court at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, CA with an 8-5 win over Lauren Barnikow and Erin Burdette of Stanford.
"It was good confidence -wise for them, but for everyone on the team [as well]," Duke women's tennis coach Jamie Ashworth said.
Up next for the duo are six-ranked Jessica Rush and Christelle Grier of Northwestern today. According to Ashworth, this pair beat Stanford's number one team that lost in the NCAA finals last year.
On the singles side, the upsetting was not done by Duke. Instead, ninth-ranked Johnson, a 2002-2003 ITA All-American, was upset by 23rd-ranked Julie Smekodub of Tulane in a 5-7, 5-7 match.
"[Amanda] struggled in singles. She never got going in her match. Usually Amanda's not someone who makes a lot of errors. It was a bit of an aberration from how she normally plays," Ashworth commented.
However, Ashworth looked at Johnson's loss as a learning experience for therest of the year.
"She knows she has to work on her serve, and her backhand if she wants to be a top-10 player all year," Ashworth said.
Despite her loss, Johnson will still play singles in the consolation bracket.
In this bracket, everyone is top 30 in the country, so a win counts the same as if it was main draw.
Men's tennis
In Chattanooga, Tenn. at the ITA All-American Championships, the Duke men's tennis team was represented in singles by Ludovic Walter along with two doubles teams.
Although he was hoping to duplicate his victory at the Adidas Classic Invitational September 30, Walter suffered a first round, straight-set defeat (6-3, 6-2) to Pierrick Ysern of San Diego. Walter then defaulted to Lafayette's Evghenii Corduneanu in the first round of the consolation bracket as a result of illness.
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