Although the Blue Devils will not visit casinos in Las Vegas this weekend, they will try to improve their fortunes in the national conversation in their first tournament of 2016.
Led by Beatrice Capra—the lone senior on a squad mostly consisting of underclassmen—No. 16 Duke opens its spring season at the Fertita Tennis Complex participating in the 14th annual Freeman Memorial Women’s Tennis Championships. The invitational, which runs Friday through Sunday, will provide the Blue Devils with the opportunity to take on five top-10 squads, including No. 2 Southern California, No. 3 Florida and cross-town rival No. 4 North Carolina.
“This is going to be a really good tournament just to get us match-ready,” Capra told GoDuke.com. “Going into the season, there are going to be a lot of great schools, a bunch of the top schools [this weekend]. It will give us tough competition from the start and hopefully it will prepare us for the season.”
Four Blue Devils enter this weekend’s tournament ranked among the top 80 players in the nation, with Capra leading the pack at No. 28. The veteran has stepped into a leadership position this year and will look to lead both off and on the court, where she went 11-7 in the fall, giving her 77 career singles victories.
With 23 more this spring, Capra would become the 25th Blue Devil to reach 100 career wins.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have great team captains in seniors in the past and when I first came in, they made me feel so comfortable and it really helped me adjust to the college life,” Capra said. “I just have been trying to make [the freshmen] feel part of the team as much as possible. I’ve never been a very vocal person but I take pride of my work ethic. I try to lead by example in that aspect.”
Freshmen Kaitlyn McCarthy and Ellyse Hamlin enter the spring ranked 29th and 70th, respectively. In their first action as Blue Devils in the fall, McCarthy registered a team-best 10-1 record and Hamlin clinched six victories. Junior Chalena Scholl, who earned a 4-3 record in the fall slate, sits 79th heading into Friday's invitational.
In doubles, the tandem of Capra and Hamlin turned in a team-best record of 9-3 in the fall gauntlet and received the 26th ranking in the country. This weekend, the duo of McCarthy and sophomore Samantha Harris and the tandem of Scholl and freshman Jessica Ho will have the opportunity to continue developing their communication skills and chemistry on the court.
“[This] is a great group to work with so far and it’s excited to show what we can do,” head coach Jamie Ashworth told GoDuke.com. “We’re a little disappointed with what we were in the preseason rankings but it gives us something to prove.... The girls said ‘We’re going to go out and show them that we are a much better team than 16th in the country.'”
After this weekend’s invitational, Capra and her teammates will battle Elon Jan. 20 in the friendly confines of the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center to continue their preparation for the ITA Kickoff Weekend, which starts two days later.
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