Women’s tennis coach Jamie Ashworth has taken a page from the motivational playbook of Coach K.
At the end of a fall season that has not quite matched expectations, Ashworth is using the words of head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski to motivate and focus his team.
“We’re always talking about Coach K always saying ‘next play,’” Ashworth said. “We’re trying to take that same thing and say next point. If you loose a point, forget about it and take advantage of any situation your in. If you’re up 40-30 or if you’re up a game point or a set point, take advantage of that, especially against good players. We’ve been close and hopefully we can learn from that and break through with that sort of next-point philosophy.”
The Blue Devils wrap up their fall season at the inaugural Kitty Harrison Invitational this weekend in Chapel Hill. The tournament, hosted by North Carolina, features some of the premier teams in the nation, including Duke, North Carolina, Miami and Wake Forest.
It is also the first time this season the Blue Devils will play team matches after a series of individual tournaments. Ashworth has primarily concentrated on testing different doubles combinations and developing an effective lineup for the singles matches in practice this week.
“We’ve [been] trying to work our hands, trying to make ourselves have the best reflexes no matter who we put together as partners,” Ashworth said.
Ashworth also said he hopes to see solid communication and flow between his doubles players and consistent tennis from his top singles players.
“We haven’t gotten the wins against nationally-ranked players that I would have hoped or would have liked,” Ashworth said. “We’ve been close and in some really good matches, but we haven’t been able to break through with some of the wins that we really needed to establish ourselves high in our lineup.”
The coach specifically singled out No. 19 Jackie Carleton as player who has performed under his expectations. The transfer from UCLA has a 5-4 record and no wins against ranked opponents. Ashworth said he is most concerned about the lack of victories against top competition this fall.
“[Carleton] hasn’t had the fall that she wanted to have,” Ashworth said. “She’s struggled. She didn’t have any match play this summer and I think that hurt her. I think now she’s realizing that if she’s going to play high, she’s going to have to put in the time and effort. She’s done a much better job of that in the last week to 10 days.”
In an unusual tournament format, Duke will face Miami, Washington State and Minnesota in singles and Wake Forest in doubles today. The Blue Devils will square off against Miami and Winthrop in doubles Saturday. Duke’s fall season ends Sunday with a doubles match against Virginia Tech and a singles match against Wake Forest.
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