Double trouble: Men, women both seeded No. 1

Despite steamrolling through its ACC opponents during the regular season, the women's tennis team remains adamant that it will not take its competition lightly in this weekend's ACC Tournament at N.C. State. When his top-seeded Blue Devils take the court against the ninth-seeded Wolfpack today at 1 p.m., coach Jamie Ashworth recognizes that, although it is not as important as an NCAA championship, an ACC trophy remains a valuable commodity in the world of collegiate women's tennis. "It's what we have to prepare us for NCAA play and it's what, in the history of our program, our success has been founded on," Ashworth said of the ACC Tournament. "It helps in recruiting, especially this year, when you have three ACC teams in the top 10 in the country. It makes the conference better, but I think it helps our program a lot." Nevertheless, Hillary Adams, who teams with Kelly McCain at No. 1 doubles, said she believes that there is a possibility of slippage as the team realizes just how close the postseason is. "After the regular season, when we've beaten all of the ACC teams, I could see how we could take [the ACC Tournament] lightly," Adams said. "We've just got to keep our focus and keep the NCAAs on hold for a second." Ashworth and his players feel very good about the way the team has progressed throughout the season, especially in its recent victories over top-10 powers Wake Forest and North Carolina. He noted that Duke's doubles teams--which have combined to win 14 out of their last 15 doubles points--has provided momentum heading into the singles matches, producing a confident lineup of six players that can compete with anybody in the nation. This momentum has been a boon for the team's top seed, McCain, who Ashworth believes has finally put together solid play in both doubles and singles. 'She's been playing well all year, but I think the biggest thing with her is actually her doubles play,' said Ashworth of the ACC player of the week. 'I think them getting wins in doubles is helping her singles confidence, because she doesn't go into her match worrying about doubles. She knows that she and Hillary can play with anybody in the country.' While the Blue Devil doubles teams continue to roll, Ashworth said he would like to see improved consistency from the middle of his lineup. Even in Duke's resounding victories, some of the team's singles players have been prone to bad days on the court. While their teammates have dominated, players like third-seed Julie DeRoo, fourth-seed Ioana Plesu and fifth-seed Saras Arasu have either had more trouble or have occasionally lost to their opponents when conventional wisdom would point otherwise. Despite these periodic deviations, however, Ashworth contends that every player on his team has improved throughout the season. 'Out of the seven years I've been here, this team has improved during the year more than any team we've had,' Ashworth said. 'I think we're playing better now than we were two weeks ago and that was better than a month ago, and that's good to see. A lot of times, teams get tired around this time of year, but I don't think we're tired--we're still getting better.' And with the team not feeling the effects of fatigue, it seems that the biggest impediment for Duke in winning another ACC title will be the sweltering heat. 'It's tough to go three matches in three days, but we've been going three matches in four days a few times in our season already, so we're used to that,' sixth-seed Katie Granson said. 'But we haven't gone three days straight accept for in Madison, [Wisc.], where we didn't have this kind of heat.'