You dont remember staying in a room at an Omni Hotel. It's more of a stop-off--not too classy, but fine enough for a good night's rest. The lodging chain sponsored this weekends ITA Southeast Regionals, and the women's tennis tournament followed suit.
Duke sent seven individuals for singles and doubles play, none of whom performed to their abilities, but it was a three-day, two-night stay in Winston-Salem that was good enough to get back in the swing of things in the fall season and give the heralded but underperforming freshman class some much-needed experience under its belt.
"[The fall season] is pretty separate from the spring, and theres more time to work out things and figure out doubles pairs and such," said Julia Smith, who had only played two sets of singles tennis since last spring. "It's important in terms of confidence and things like that, and the freshmen might struggle with building that confidence, so it's important in that sense."
Saras Arasu and freshman Tory Zawacki made their way to the quarterfinals of the singles tournament, which featured many but not all of the ACC's top players. In Friday's first-round singles play, the tenth-seeded Arasu took down Western Kentucky's Karina Ledaja in straight setsshe and freshman Kristin Cargill lost in the second round of doubles later that afternoon, while Zawacki also had a straight-set win. Freshman Jennifer Zika and Cargill also moved on in first-round singles.
Saturday, though, was the real competition and, soon enough, the real drop-off.
In the second round, Arasu battled out a 7-6, 7-3 win over Wake Forest's Sandie Knight while the freshman Zawacki had a very legitimate victory over North Carolina's Caitlin Collins, 7-6, 7-6. When it came to the quarterfinals, though, Arasu fell quick and Zawacki had to withdraw due to injury.
But the freshmen, who had been stumbling out of the gates this fall, got to play the ACC counterparts they'll get used to seeing when the season counts a little more, and getting to the second round was serviceable, if not ideal.
"The tournament was good for us to get a few matches under our belt," Cargill said. "We got some confidence. I'm glad we've had these fall tournaments because by the spring we should be fully adjusted."
Cargill, a major recruit from Atlanta whose sister went pro out of Duke, held serve all but once against Middle Tennessee State's Jennifer Klaschka and beat her 6-4, 7-5 in the first round. But Cargill's second-round play was another story, a 6-0, 6-2 loss to a bigger, older--though still freshman--player from Kentucky, one who caught a spark, no matter how much Duke's rookie tried to slow her down.
Slowing down before the spring race was the omnipresent sentiment for Duke this weekend, holding out until February for the sparks to fly.
"It's not like its the only chance we have," Smith said.
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