Duke looks to carry its success from last year’s NCAA individual and team national championships into the new year, as the Blue Devils begin their season at the Wake Forest Fall Invitational this weekend.
The three-day tournament, held in Winston-Salem, will mark the first time that the team has played together since May, when Duke rolled through the NCAA tournament to win its first national title.
“We are excited to play,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “Some of these girls haven’t played a match in three and a half months.... I know [my players] have been playing points against each other, so to get a different face across the net is going to be good for us.”
This year’s team is without Mallory Cecil, last year’s NCAA singles champion who left Duke to pursue a professional career. Cecil started life on the WTA tour by competing in the first round of this month’s U.S. Open. Her NCAA singles individual title merited her a wild card bid from the U.S. Tennis Association.
“Obviously we would love to have [Mallory] back, but we still have girls that are going to fight and compete,” Ashworth said.
Four out of six players from last year’s team return, including Reka Zsilinszka, the MVP of the 2009 NCAA tournament.
Ashworth said that winning the national championship will impact the intensity that the team faces from its opponents.
“They are going to have to understand that because of how we finished last year, people are going to want to beat us,” Ashworth said. “They have to be able to raise their level of play every time they step on the court and we will have to start working on that this weekend.”
The team brings back three nationally ranked single players, led by the 13th-ranked Zsilinszka. Junior Ellah Nze is ranked 19th while senior Amanda Granson comes in at No. 57.
The Wake Forest Invitational will also mark a return to action for senior Liz Plotkin, who missed all of last season with a serious knee injury.
Plotkin said that coming off of last year’s national championship, the team is looking to maintain the same drive for another title.
“It kind of takes pressure off of us because we finally achieved something that we strived so hard for, but we definitely want to keep the pressure on ourselves to do it again,” Plotkin said. “We have to continue to work hard and not ease up.”
The Wake Forest Invitational also features Davidson, UNC Greensboro, Illinois, Old Dominion, Richmond and Wake Forest.
Duke holds three out of four top individuals seeds and the pair of Zsilinszka and Nze are ranked first in doubles play.
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