No time for cold feet! Plagued by first-match jitters, the Blue Devils struggled in their season opener, but the start of ITA competition offers them a chance to rebound.
No. 4 Duke returns home to the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center Saturday to kick off the ITA season with a 2:00 p.m. match against ACC foe Louisville. After dropping two spots in the ITA polls following their narrow 4-3 win against William and Mary, the Blue Devils will look to reassert themselves in a friendly environment.
If Duke soars past the Cardinals, they will go on to challenge either Furman or Memphis in the championship game Sunday at 1:00 p.m. as part of the ITA Kick-off Weekend. If they lose to Louisville, the Blue Devils will play in the consolation match at 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
“Our goal is to be better than we were the other day,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “We won but we didn’t play a great match [against William and Mary]. We played tight and waited for opponents to make mistakes. Everything that we’ve done in practice since has focused on being aggressive and finishing balls.”
Contrasting Duke’s underwhelming start to the season, Louisville (1-0) enters the weekend riding a decisive 7-0 sweep versus Butler. Game control and aggressive play will be key to the Blue Devils’ attempt to slow down the surging Cardinals and progress through the tournament.
Duke (1-0) fell to the Tribe 2-1 in doubles matches in the season opener, forcing Ashworth’s squad to come from behind to earn a victory. Despite boasting two nationally ranked players on their roster, the Blue Devils have failed to break into the ITA’s top 100 doubles rankings. The struggle to establish chemistry between players represents a lingering weakness in the Blue Devils’ game—a weakness the Cardinals would be happy to exploit.
With two amblers still on injured reserve and one-third of the team graduating the previous year, finding suitable pairs has been an uphill battle for Duke. As Ashworth points out, great doubles teams play together and understand how their teammates’ play. With the ITA season on their doorstep, the Blue Devils’ window to experiment with doubles pairs is shrinking by the week.
“It’s something that we have talked about as a team,” Ashworth said. “Expect us to field different combinations every time until we settle on something. For one thing, it will keep our opponents off balance, but we also need to find the best combination that we can. It’s easy to make one great team, but we are shooting to have three really good teams.”
Although Duke’s double’s strategy is settling into a holding pattern, the team is getting a considerable boost from 55th-ranked Samantha Harris. The freshman from Melbourne, Australia, appears to be coming into her own just in time for the opening of the ITA campaign.
Against William and Mary, Harris put the team on her back. With the dual score resting on the outcome of her own singles match, Harris overcame her own nerves and clinched the win for her team. Her development as a player and as a young leader on the team has not bypassed the watchful eye of Ashworth, who anticipates another strong showing from the freshman Saturday.
“Harris will be big for us in singles and doubles,” Ashworth said. “Her play has a big impact on the team’s emotions. Now that she has those first-match jitters out of the way, she can focus on being herself on the court, and that’s when she plays her best tennis.”
Returning All-American and 87th-ranked Ester Goldfield will also give the home team a considerable boost. Last time out, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native notched a singles win after dropping her doubles contest alongside senior Annie Mulholland. Her experience and talent combine to make her a matchup problem for any competition.
Saturday will be the first time that the Blue Devils have faced the Cardinals in Ashworth’s 17-year tenure at Duke, but the veteran coach does not view that as a problem.
“Our girls are pretty good at figuring stuff out,” Ashworth said. “We’ll have them concentrate on themselves and let the coaches worry about making adjustments.”
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