Princeton goes 30-9 at Duke Dual tourney

Just as the cold and blustery wind found its way to Princeton, the women's tennis team migrated to warmer climates. This past weekend, the team traveled to Durham, N.C., to participate in the Duke Dual Tournament against the nation's best. The women finished 30-9 in overall match play, displaying a fight and resolve that carried them to victory after victory.

"Overall we had a great weekend, [including victories against] No. 20 Wake Forest, No. 21 Duke and No. 43 Oregon, some of the top teams in the NCAA," junior Kristen Scott said.

Some Duke and Wake Forest University players were participating in the Wilson International Tennis Association Southeast Regional Championships, which took place at the same time as the Duke Dual Tournament.

The Tigers had several players win all three of their matches in the tournament, including junior Kristen Scott and freshmen Sarah Hoffman and Taylor Marable.

Most agreed that the highlight of the weekend, however, was the tremendous play of freshman Becca Parks, who defeated Oregon's No. 2 singles Carmen Seremeta in a thrilling third-set tiebreaker 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10).

"[Becca's opponent] had five match points in the third-set tiebreak, and at one point [Becca] was down 6-3 in the tiebreak, but she kept coming up with winners off of each one," senior Ivana King said. "I was amazed by the amount of nerve it took to come back and [put] herself out on the line."

In addition to that victory, Parks also recorded two big singles victories against Wake Forest University, including a 6-0, 6-0 double bagel against No. 89 Christian Tara. Also recording key victories in the tournament for Princeton were senior Ivana King, sophomore Kelly Stewart and freshmen Melissa Saiontz and Blakely Ashley.

While most students were resting up over the holidays, the women's tennis team was busy traveling. Fatigue, however, was the least of the athletes' worries.

"Fatigue isn't an issue for our team because we've all been working really hard on fitness, going to the gym more than three times a week," King said. "Fitness has been something that we've been really going hard at, and it showed with all our matches. We won almost all the three setters and simply had more endurance than our opponents."

In addition to the challenges presented by various weather conditions over the weekend, players also had to tailor their games to Duke's brightly-lit outdoor courts after practicing in Jadwin's indoor facilities.

"The transition from indoors to outdoors is always difficult because you have to take into account the wind and sun playing outside," Scott said. "But I think our team did a great job transitioning and, on the first day especially, fought through every match despite the cold and dark."

"We definitely went down to Duke this weekend as the team to beat," Scott added. "We were playing against three teams ranked higher than us and showed that we not only can compete with them, but we can beat them."

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The road trip south isn't over just yet for Princeton, as it heads down to North Carolina again this weekend to compete against UNC. Hopefully for the Tigers, similar results await them.