In their last opportunity to make an impression in a competitive setting before the start of team play, four Blue Devils will compete against top-flight talent in tournament play this weekend. Junior Hanna Mar will travel to Flushing, N.Y. for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships, and sophomore Annie Mulholland, senior Mary Clayton and junior Marianne Jodoin will participate in the Kitty Harrison Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C.
As the culmination of the fall season, the ITA National Indoors includes a 32-player singles draw. The prestigious event features the cream of the crop in college tennis—this year, seven of the top 10 players from the Campbell/ITA preseason rankings will be in attendance, as well as 20 other ranked athletes. With a preseason ranking of No. 35, Mar is among these athletes.
“I have a lot to look forward to,” she said. “There is going to be really good competition, really good matches.”
The Illinois native earned a spot in the tournament by winning the singles title at the ITA Carolina Regional Championship Oct. 18-23. She is 11-2 in the fall season with three victories against ranked opponents. Last season, she picked up All-ACC honors, but her selection to the tournament draw is based solely on her recent success.
“You don’t have people that are resting on their laurels from a year ago,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “You have 32 people that played their way in this fall.”
Mar will face No. 89 Aleksandra Josifoska of UNLV in the first round of singles play Thursday. Ashworth noted that her preparation for the upcoming tournament has been largely mental.
“She’s hitting a good ball, and she can definitely compete with anybody in the country—she just has to believe that,” Ashworth said. “As long as she does that and doesn’t go on the court with a mindset of, ‘If I play well I could win,’ and rather, goes out there and says, ‘If I play well I should win.’ That difference between ‘should’ and ‘could’ in her head is a big thing.”
Mar echoed this sentiment, citing confidence as a crucial aspect to focus on during the tournament.
“I have been playing well in my matches, so I have to keep doing that and use the confidence that I have built up in the matches that I’ve played,” she said. Mulholland, Clayton and Jodoin’s tennis-filled weekend begins Friday at the Kitty Harrison Invitational. Mulholland and Clayton are a doubles pair, and Jodoin is playing singles. Jodoin, ranked 27th in the preseason rankings, is 6-6 in singles this fall. Three of her wins have come against ranked opponents.
Mulholland and Clayton did not play as a pair last year, but in the fall, one of the team’s major goals was creating three strong doubles pairs, Ashworth said. Depending on how the tournament pans out, they might play together in the spring.
“Hopefully they can play well together and show that that might be a possibility for us,” Ashworth said.
Fall tournament play has been beneficial for the Blue Devils, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed before the start of team play, as well as placing them in a competitive setting.
“Putting themselves in competitive situations is really important for us and that’s the main reason we play all these tournaments in the fall—to build up our confidence, build up our recall, build up everything that we’ve been working on and putting it into play,” Ashworth said.
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