Trio Of Blue Devils To Compete At Omni Hotels National Indoors

Nov. 7, 2001

DURHAM, N.C. - A trio of Duke women's tennis players will compete from November 8-11 in the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, hosted by SMU and presented by The Dallas Morning News. Junior Julie DeRoo (Ecully, France), sophomore Amanda Johnson (Bettendorf, Iowa) and freshman Kelly McCain (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) all will kick off competition on Thursday at the Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas.

The Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship is the nation's premier collegiate indoor tennis tournament and the second of three national championship events for college tennis this season.

In the top eight seeds, Duke's McCain is seeded fifth, while Johnson is eighth. McCain is 5-2 on the season with two victories over second ranked Lauren Kalvaria (Stanford) and eighth-ranked Mariel Verban (Georgia) at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Riviera All-American in October. McCain advanced to the semifinals of the Riviera before falling to fourth-ranked Nataly Cahana of Old Dominion.

Johnson heads into Thursday's action with a 3-3 record with two victories coming against ranked opponents-- 34th-ranked Lia Jackson (Northwestern) and 10th-ranked Gabriela Lastra (Stanford). Duke's DeRoo has won 10 consecutive matches after falling to fifth-ranked Sara Walker of UCLA in the first round of the main draw at the ITA Riviera All-American. She captured the singles consolation title at the Riviera All-American and the singles championship at the Southeast Regionals on October 29. DeRoo is 10-1 on the season.

In the preseason rankings, Duke's Johnson is ninth, DeRoo is 21st and McCain is 49th in singles. The first round of singles will kick off at 8:30 AM (central time) Thursday.

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