Duke Advances To NCAA Final 16 With 4-0 Win Over William & Mary

Saturday, May 15

Durham, N.C.

TBA

Duke University

William & Mary

Duke Advances To NCAA Final 16 With 4-0 Win Over William & Mary

5/15/2004 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

May 15, 2004

DURHAM, N.C.- For the 14th straight season, the fourth-ranked and seventh-seeded Duke women's tennis team advanced to the final 16 of the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship on Saturday with a 4-0 victory over 36th-ranked William & Mary.

Duke improved to 21-4 on the season, while William & Mary fell to 20-13. The Blue Devils now have won 10 straight NCAA Tournament contests played in Durham, N.C. During the 10-match win streak, Duke has not allowed a point to its opponents.

"Our goal today was to come out from the first ball we hit with a better attitude, footwork and an attack mindset," said Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth. "We set the tone early with good doubles play and stuck with our goals for the entire match."

By taking two of three doubles contests, Duke jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the match. For the second straight day, the Blue Devil tandem of Katie Blaszak and Kristin Cargill cruised to a victory with an 8-2 win over Alex de Guzman and Emily Mowery. It marked the second match the tandem has played together this season.

At the second position, the Duke team of Amanda Johnson and Saras Arasu jumped out to an early 5-0 lead before William & Mary's Kate Boomershine and Lena Sherbakov made a run cutting the score to 6-3. The Blue Devils were able to win the next two games to clinch the doubles point.

The other match of 26th-ranked Megan Muth and Amy Wei of William & Mary and 51st-ranked Julia Smith and Tory Zawacki from Duke was abandoned with the Blue Devils leading 7-6 at No. 1.

Duke used the momentum from taking the doubles point into singles as the Blue Devils jumped out to early leads in five of the six matches. Playing at the No. 3 position, Zawacki cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Wei to give Duke a 2-0 lead. A freshman from Union, N.J., Zawacki picked up her second straight singles win on the weekend to improve to 21-10 on the year.

In the featured singles match of the day at center court, eighth-ranked Johnson of Duke was up against 25th-ranked Muth from William & Mary. Johnson, a senior from Bettendorf, Iowa, went up 3-0 early in the first set and never looked back winning 6-1, 6-2, to give the Blue Devils a 3-0 lead. The victory was Johnson's 114th of her career to move her into tied for ninth place on Duke's all-time wins list with Patti O'Reilly.

"As a team, we played much better today," said Johnson. "In doubles we put them away. As for myself, I played better today but I still have a few things I need to work on before we play in the next round of the tournament."

Picking up the match-clinching victory on Saturday for the Blue Devils was Blaszak at the fourth position. A junior from Fairfax, Va., Blaszak was down 2-1 early in the first set before pulling out a 6-4 win in set one. Then, Blaszak was down 3-0 in the second before winning six straight points to win 6-3. The win for Blaszak was only her second singles victory of the year as she missed the first seven months of the season due to a shoulder injury.

"When I won the first set, I came out with an emotional high because I haven't been playing well lately," said Blaszak. "Once I got my head back into it and went back to my game plan I was fine."

The other three singles matches were abandoned with the Blue Devils leading in two of the three, after Duke clinched the victory.

"We were hoping that Duke would be down today as they looked a little flat yesterday," said William & Mary head coach Kevin Epley. "I have to give Duke credit as they played totally different today. Both Tory Zawacki and Amanda Johnson came out very strong in singles and played well."

Duke will next face the winner out of the regional being played at 10th-seeded Northwestern, which features 29th-ranked Notre Dame and ninth-ranked Northwestern. The match will be played on May 20 at 3:00 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex hosted by the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

#4 Duke 4, #36 William & Mary 0


Doubles
1.  #51 Julia Smith/Tory Zawacki (DU) vs. #26 Megan Muth/Amy Wei (WM) DNF
2.  Amanda Johnson/Saras Arasu (DU) d. Kate Boomershine/Lena Sherbakov (WM) 8-3
3.  Kristin Cargill/Katie Blaszak (DU) d. Alex de Guzman/Emily Mowery (WM) 8-2
Order of finish:  3, 2*



Singles
1. #8 Amanda Johnson (DU) d. #25 Megan Muth (WM)  6-1, 6-2
2. #112 Jennifer Zika (DU) vs. #114 Lena Sherbakov (WM)  DNF
3. Tory Zawacki (DU) d. Amy Wei (WM)  6-1, 6-1
4. Katie Blaszak (DU) d. Lingda Yang (WM)  6-4, 6-3
5. Saras Arasu (DU) vs. Emily Mowery (WM)  DNF
6. Kristin Cargill (DU) vs. Kristin Dunbar (WM)  DNF
Order of finish:   3, 1, 4*