Expect good things: People to Watch 2003-2004 (continued)

Besieged by reporters in the wake of Duke1s 66-56 loss to Tennessee in the Final Four, Alana Beard fights back the tears that usually run down her cheeks on the rare occasions she loses a basketball game.

On this night, the junior scored 29 of Duke1s points, and carried the team when all of her teammates were struggling.

"I took it upon myself," she says of the final minutes, during which she kept Duke close single-handedly. "I didn't want to go out losing, and I tried to do everything possible that I could to win."

Beard's determination was clearly visible, and her will to win is enormous. So next year, when she1s a senior playing in the NCAA tournament to keep her college career alive, her will to win should be frightening to behold. With Monique Currie returning from injury and top recruits Brittany Hunter and Allison Bales coming in, Duke will have an even better shot at a national championship.

But even if Duke doesn't win the championship, Beard will spend the 2003-2004 season rewriting the Duke women1s basketball record book. She scored her 2,000th point on a halftime-buzzer-beating three-pointer against Tennessee<and she ended the season with 2,016. She trails Chris Moreland, an All-American who graduated in 1988, by just 216 points, which she ought to be able to score in 10 or 11 games next year. Her 763 field goals made are second to Moreland1s 828--a mark she can pass easily. She has made 431 free throws, good enough for third all-time, and should pass Moreland by the end of next season. She should also break into the top five in rebounds and the top two in assists. She1s fourth in blocks with 103. She's already the all-time steals leader, with 324 compared to No. 2 Katie Meier's 232. She has scored in double figures in 97 of her 102 games, and broken 20 points in 49 games.

For the second consecutive year, Beard is a consensus All-American, and this year she won the ESPN.com National Player of the Year award. All she needs to do is graduate to meet Duke's requirements for jersey retirement, and she still has another season to play. Then for the first time, a woman1s jersey will hang in Cameron Indoor Stadium along with the 11 retired men1s jerseys.

"We better have a jersey retired next year--that has not been determined yet," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors says. 3It1s a great honor that Alana deserves. Hopefully it1ll be the first of many for the program.²

Beard has elicited comparisons to men1s honoree and current associate head coach Johnny Dawkins, a phenomenal player in his own right who was instrumental in bumping the men1s program to elite national status.

Berman has been a singer for as long as she can remember. What makes her unique among a glut of popular music wannabes, however, is her love for opera.

" just saw [opera] as the ultimate in singing,"says Berman, a sophomore from Long Island, N.Y., after her first experience singing in the New York City Opera Children' Choir. Although Berman was, at one time, uncertain about her career path, she is now positive she wants opera to be her life. " realize it' a tough choice and a hard road ahead."/p>

In addition to singing with the Chorale and taking part in opera workshops, the A.J. Fletcher Music Scholar spends about an hour and a half every day practicing opera individually. More than the physical task of singing for 90 minutes continuously, practicing requires her to study the aria diligently and mentally enter the role.

"ou have to be a dramatist, a linguist [and] an athlete to be an opera singer,"says Berman, a music major. At a "aster class"for expert singers, she took inspiration from the professor1s comment, "very fiber goes into it."/p>

As part of her drive to improve her voice, Berman will travel to Italy this summer and sing in a production of Mozart1s Don Giovanni. The program is run by Oberlin College, a well-respected conservatory.

"It'll open a new world to me," she says, adding that she looks forward to the exposure to the language, culture, maestri and other students. "I'm going to try to synthesize everything I've heard into a sound quality I can sustain."

The path Berman has to traverse on the way to becoming an opera singer is a long one, as most opera singers' voices do not mature until their late 20s or early 30s. But Berman's passion for music has driven her to work harder than she thought she could work, to go beyond her level of confidence.

"Her attitude about her dedication to how much it takes to succeed has greatly improved," says Susan Dunn, Berman's voice coach and professor of the practice of music.

Berman has not yet settled on the sound she wants to make and is constantly working to fine-tune it. Her voice currently spans the breadth of a mezzo-soprano, although that could change over time.

Rodney Wynkoop, director of the Chorale, is very impressed with the sound she produces. "Of the people we've had come through Duke [in my 19 years here], it's very rare to have a mezzo-soprano develop with as rich a sound as Melissa's," he says. "She looks at [her talent] as a gift, and she's happy to make of it what she can."

Berman already faced a brief setback this past summer when she underwent surgery near her vocal cords. For a short time, there was a question of whether she'd get her voice back, she said.

Now well again, Berman is preparing to step up her musical endeavors

Becoming a star opera singer is as much dependent on luck as on talent, Wynkoop says. So Berman knows that her future in opera is not guaranteed. Nevertheless, opera is where her passion remains.

"I would love to live off singing," Berman says. "It's with [me] every second of every day."

--By Malavika Prabhu