The Virginia women's tennis team ended its 2008-09 season with a 4-1 NCAA match play loss to eventual national champion Duke, recording a 14-10 final record. A summer removed from that disappointing finish, the Cavaliers will seek revenge this weekend on the Blue Devils' home turf.
Duke is led by senior Amanda Granson, who had a winning singles record last fall, going 17-10. Granson also brings experience in the doubles arena, having earned an at-large doubles bid in the NCAA tournament last year.
Especially dominant against conference foes, the Blue Devils also performed well on the road, with a 7-2 record in away matches.
"The team understands that we were pretty strong at the end of the year but it's asking a lot to try to beat the national champions at their place," coach Mark Guilbeau said. "If we can just have a little bit more progress and a little bit of a head start to that same level, we would be in a much better position at the end of the year to maybe be a favorite instead of having to play a team like that."
Led by then-seniors Amanda Rales and Maggie Yahner, the Cavaliers reached the NCAA tournament last year for the 10th time in program history. Both athletes were essential individual competitors on the singles court as well as a challenging doubles pair.
Although the squad has lost two of its most experienced players, this year's roster features promising amounts of talent. Four freshmen - Riley Blanks, Maria Fuccillo, Hana Tomljanovic and Erin Vierra - will be officially added to the lineup this weekend at the William and Mary Invitational. The four athletes were heavily sought-after as recruits, and the team hopes they will make significant contributions this year.
After this weekend, senior Jennifer Stevens, junior Neela Vaez and sophomores Lindsey Hardenbergh and Emily Fraser hope to find comfortable positions on the ladder with the newcomers.
"We've been playing matches against each other a lot - we played two sets of doubles against each other yesterday - and we're just figuring out some teams and stuff for this weekend," Stevens said.
Fraser is entering the season ranked No. 54 out of 125 in the ITA Preseason Rankings. Stevens follows closely behind at No. 73.
Guilbeau hopes to see the players maintain their rankings and improve throughout the season.
"The reality is that we have a number of players that can be ranked, so hopefully that's another step for our program," Guilbeau said. "That is part of the focus ... of course, you always want the team to be first in your focus, but we need to have the individual results and accomplishments to make that happen."
An initial test of this individual persistence will reveal itself this weekend, and the coaches see it as a learning opportunity for both themselves and the players.
"You have new players each year and it takes some time to learn the whole process and that's completely understandable," Guilbeau said. "We're really excited about what the team took from [NCAAs], what they showed through the summer and what they've shown so far, and that includes the new players"
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