Lauren Archer’s singles victory in her first tournament at Duke signals strong things to come. Archer, a transfer from Rice, won her singles bracket at this weekend’s William & Mary Invitational in Williamsburg, VA.
In addition to Archer, two other Blue Devils advanced to singles finals and Jackie Carleton won a consolation singles final. One Duke doubles team lost in the finals while duo Tory Zawacki and Kristin Cargill won in a consolation final.
“We had three main goals this weekend,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We wanted to play a lot of matches, see the new players in real tournament play, and find some doubles teams.”
Eight players competed in the three-day tournament. Archer defeated fellow Blue Devil Parker Goyer in the Flight C singles finals 6-0, 6-3.
“Teammates playing each other is not a great situation for the players,” Ashworth said. “But it adds to the pressure of the match, which is great preparation for the future. It allows us to gauge the player better.”
Carleton, a junior transfer from UCLA, won the Flight A singles consolation bracket with a victory over Ashley Kroh of Marshall 6-3, 6-2. Carleton is the Blue Devils’ highest-ranked player at No. 19 but lost early to Megan Moulton-Levy of William & Mary 6-3, 6-1 Friday.
No. 96 Saras Arasu lost her first match of the season in the Flight B finals 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 to Lena Sherbakov of William & Mary.
Freshman Clelia Deltour won a consolation match Sunday 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 over Kristen James of Virginia. Deltour also played doubles in her first college event and, along with partner Goyer, lost to a pair from Virginia 8-5 in the Flight B doubles title match. Zawacki and Cargill won the Flight A doubles consolation 8-3.
“With seniors gone and so many new players, we wanted to see who worked well together in doubles competition,” said Ashwoth, who mixed up his doubles pairs this weekend. “Tory made some changes to her game so we tried to get her into as many matches as possible to get her comfortable.”
No. 68 Jennifer Zika won a consolation match Saturday against Darcy Robertson of Princeton 6-4, 7-6. No. 114 Nida Waseem of Boston College downed Zika Sunday in another consolation match. Zika avenged the loss when she and Arasu defeated Waseem and Szilvia Szegedi of Boston College 8-6 in doubles consolation play.
The Blue Devils next compete Oct. 2 to 10 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Riviera All-American in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.