Completed Event: Women's Tennis versus #7 Virginia on April 18, 2026 , Loss , 2, to, 4
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Final
Women's Tennis
2
vs #7 Virginia
4
Photo by: Duke Athletics
Best of the Best: Duke’s Legacy in the Collegiate Women Sports Awards
4/24/2026 8:00:00 AM | Women's Golf, Women's Tennis
DURHAM, N.C.-- Women's sports have never had a bigger stage. Audiences are growing, athletes are becoming household names and the conversation around female competition has never been louder. It is a fitting moment, then, to look back at the story of how we got here.
For half a century, the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards have been part of that story. Founded in 1976 as the Broderick Awards and sponsored by Honda since 1986, the CWSA has spent 50 years recognizing the nation's best female collegiate athletes — honoring not just their athletic brilliance, but the complete student-athlete: competitor, academic and leader. It is the only recognition of its kind to span both the AIAW and NCAA eras, a living testament to the full arc of women's college sports in America. As the organization marks its 50th anniversary during the 2025-26 season, it is celebrating across campuses the voices of the women who made that history and the amazing young athletes who will carry it forward for the next 50 years.
At Duke, that history runs deep. Nine Blue Devils have earned the program's Honda Award across two sports: golf and tennis. Their stories span continents and decades, united by their common thread of excellence, perseverance and Duke.
Seven Trophies. One Program
No program in the country has produced more Honda Award winners in one sport than Duke women's golf. Seven times, a Blue Devil has been named the nation's top collegiate golfer, spanning more than 15 years from Candy Hannemann's pioneering win in 2001 to Virginia Elena Carta in 2016.
At the center of that dynasty is Amanda Blumenhurst, the only Duke golfer to win the Honda Award in back-to-back years, 2007 and 2008. Virada Nirapathpongporn (2002), Anna Grzebien (2005) and Celine Boutier (2014) were all national champions and Honda Award winners.
Virada Nirapathpongporn's path to Duke and the Honda Award is one of the most remarkable stories in Duke program history. Growing up in Thailand, she was one of only a handful of girls playing golf in her region. A full scholarship to Duke was, at the time, an almost unheard-of opportunity for a young woman from Southeast Asia.
"For me to come from such a small country in Thailand, to study abroad, to be exposed to all these great opportunities, and be recognized as a woman athlete by the Honda Award. It's incredible," Nirapathpongporn said. "I think it gives inspiration to other young girls that they can work really hard, be dedicated, and if they are successful, they will be recognized globally."
The biggest obstacle on her journey, she says, wasn't geography, but one that every golfer knows intimately: getting out of her own way.
"In a sport like golf where playing within yourself is the main focus, the biggest obstacle is getting over ourselves," Nirapathpongporn explains. "I always struggled with it coming from high school. But once I got to Duke, with the help of Coach Brooks and the experience I got in college golf, I really learned the lessons to overcome that."
By the time she graduated, she says, she was ready for the professional level. "I knew how to get out of my own way and perform the way I knew myself to," said Nirapathpongporn.
That mental lesson was put to the test on the eve of the final round of the 2002 NCAA Championship, with Duke and Arizona locked in a battle for the national title. Nirapathpongporn was leading individually, but the weight of the moment was bearing down.
"I was so nervous. I was about to get in my own way," Nirapathpongporn recalls.
It was Coach Dan Brooks who steadied her, saying to her, "You're right where you need to be. This is where you take the bull by its horns. You don't back down from what you're fearing — you go into it anyway."
She did. Duke won, and Brooks helped shape her mental fortitude into what it is today.
Now back in Thailand, Nirapathpongporn has spent 15 years giving back to the game that gave her so much. She works with the Thailand Ladies Golf Association and the Thailand Golf Foundation to develop the next generation of elite competitors and recreational female golfers.
"Golf is such a great game and we want to see the love continue for a long, long time," Nirapathpongporn says. "Who knows? Some of them might have the opportunity to study abroad and maybe become Honda Award winners eventually. We would like to see that."
Two Champions
Duke's tennis program has produced two Honda Award winners of its own. Separated by a decade, but united by the same standard of excellence. Vanessa Webb claimed the honor in 1999, with Mallory Cecil following in 2009.
Cecil remembers the moment she learned she had won with striking clarity and honesty.
"I'll never forget hearing that I had won the award and honestly didn't know what it was about or represented," Cecil recalls. What she discovered in her research resonated strongly with her. The Honda Award, she learned, wasn't just about performance as she had originally assumed, but a recognition of her whole person.
"That just made me feel really seen, not just for what I had achieved, but who I was and what I embodied," Cecil said. "There is life after tennis. It was very affirming to know that no matter what I go and do after sports, the ingredients inside of me for greatness, for excellence, remain there."
Cecil points to indecision as the obstacle that shaped her most—specifically the weight of deciding whether to go to college, when and where.
"Not making a decision is also a decision," Cecil reflected.
It was only when she ripped off the band aid and committed to enrolling at Duke in January to join the women's tennis team that things really clicked.
"My vision just narrowed in, and I was really able to take off the weight of everything else and focus on the things right in front of me. There was just such a freedom in that."
Cecil draws a direct line from her tennis mindset to how she approaches life today.
"In tennis, you play the point that's in front of you," added Cecil. "You move on from it — good or bad — and make a decision on how to play the next one. In my life today, it's really just trying to make the best next decision and move on."
When Cecil reflects on the Honda Award and the journey to it, she returns again and again to the women around her.
"I've just been surrounded by incredibly strong women who have been great leaders and great mentors to me," Cecil said. "Leadership is like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it."
Her 2009 teammates, who won the national championship together, were foundational. "I still remember feeling so incredibly supported by every single one of them," said Cecil. "They believed in me and then I believed in myself. As women, we really do build on the shoulders of those who came before us."
Perseverance, of course, is not unique to sport. It is the common language of life for anyone who has ever pushed through something hard. For Cecil, tennis was simply where she learned to speak that language fluently.
"Sports gave me an environment where I could learn how to mentally, physically and emotionally persevere through trying seasons and experience the fruit of overcoming. That's an incredible skill that has translated into everything I've done since," Cecil said.
A Golden Moment in a Transformational Year
The CWSA's 50th Anniversary is not an ordinary milestone. During the 2025-26 season, the organization has launched a nationwide celebration visiting campuses across the country, gathering stories of the powerful female athletes. The culmination is the largest assembly of winners ever on July 26-27 in New York City, where legends such as Caitlin Clark, Mia Hamm, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Katie Ledecky will gather alongside the new Class of 2026. It will be broadcast live nationally on CBS Sports Network on July 27.
Both Nirapathpongporn and Cecil see the anniversary as a moment that extends far beyond their own careers. Nirapathpongporn looks ahead to the young girls in Thailand and around the world who will see what's possible.
"I really hope the Honda Award continues to give recognition to women athletes in the world," she said. "It will give further inspiration to the next generations."
For Cecil, the six-year-old picking up a racket for the first time deserves the same opportunities that shaped her own career.
"These entities that continue to push for the advancement and growth of female athletes are incredibly important. I give my eternal gratitude to all of them," Cecil said.
For Duke, the 50th anniversary is an opportunity to do what the Blue Devils have always done best — celebrate their legacy of excellence and use it to inspire what comes next. Nine award winners. Two sports at the top of their fields; half a century of the nation's best.
The story is already extraordinary. The next chapter in the story of strong female athletes is still being written.
For more information on the Collegiate Women Sports Awards 50th Anniversary, visit collegiatewomensportsawards.com.
#GoDuke
For half a century, the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards have been part of that story. Founded in 1976 as the Broderick Awards and sponsored by Honda since 1986, the CWSA has spent 50 years recognizing the nation's best female collegiate athletes — honoring not just their athletic brilliance, but the complete student-athlete: competitor, academic and leader. It is the only recognition of its kind to span both the AIAW and NCAA eras, a living testament to the full arc of women's college sports in America. As the organization marks its 50th anniversary during the 2025-26 season, it is celebrating across campuses the voices of the women who made that history and the amazing young athletes who will carry it forward for the next 50 years.
At Duke, that history runs deep. Nine Blue Devils have earned the program's Honda Award across two sports: golf and tennis. Their stories span continents and decades, united by their common thread of excellence, perseverance and Duke.
Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards, we celebrate nine Duke Honda Award winners—seven in women's golf and two in women's tennis.
— Duke Athletics (@DukeATHLETICS) March 25, 2026
?? Vanessa Webb (1998) @DukeWTEN
?? Candy Hannemann (2000-01) @DukeWGOLF
?? Virada Nirapathpongporn (2001-02)… pic.twitter.com/B5PIuTwm0e
Seven Trophies. One Program
No program in the country has produced more Honda Award winners in one sport than Duke women's golf. Seven times, a Blue Devil has been named the nation's top collegiate golfer, spanning more than 15 years from Candy Hannemann's pioneering win in 2001 to Virginia Elena Carta in 2016.
At the center of that dynasty is Amanda Blumenhurst, the only Duke golfer to win the Honda Award in back-to-back years, 2007 and 2008. Virada Nirapathpongporn (2002), Anna Grzebien (2005) and Celine Boutier (2014) were all national champions and Honda Award winners.
Virada Nirapathpongporn's path to Duke and the Honda Award is one of the most remarkable stories in Duke program history. Growing up in Thailand, she was one of only a handful of girls playing golf in her region. A full scholarship to Duke was, at the time, an almost unheard-of opportunity for a young woman from Southeast Asia.
"For me to come from such a small country in Thailand, to study abroad, to be exposed to all these great opportunities, and be recognized as a woman athlete by the Honda Award. It's incredible," Nirapathpongporn said. "I think it gives inspiration to other young girls that they can work really hard, be dedicated, and if they are successful, they will be recognized globally."
The biggest obstacle on her journey, she says, wasn't geography, but one that every golfer knows intimately: getting out of her own way.
"In a sport like golf where playing within yourself is the main focus, the biggest obstacle is getting over ourselves," Nirapathpongporn explains. "I always struggled with it coming from high school. But once I got to Duke, with the help of Coach Brooks and the experience I got in college golf, I really learned the lessons to overcome that."
By the time she graduated, she says, she was ready for the professional level. "I knew how to get out of my own way and perform the way I knew myself to," said Nirapathpongporn.
That mental lesson was put to the test on the eve of the final round of the 2002 NCAA Championship, with Duke and Arizona locked in a battle for the national title. Nirapathpongporn was leading individually, but the weight of the moment was bearing down.
"I was so nervous. I was about to get in my own way," Nirapathpongporn recalls.
It was Coach Dan Brooks who steadied her, saying to her, "You're right where you need to be. This is where you take the bull by its horns. You don't back down from what you're fearing — you go into it anyway."
She did. Duke won, and Brooks helped shape her mental fortitude into what it is today.
Now back in Thailand, Nirapathpongporn has spent 15 years giving back to the game that gave her so much. She works with the Thailand Ladies Golf Association and the Thailand Golf Foundation to develop the next generation of elite competitors and recreational female golfers.
"Golf is such a great game and we want to see the love continue for a long, long time," Nirapathpongporn says. "Who knows? Some of them might have the opportunity to study abroad and maybe become Honda Award winners eventually. We would like to see that."
Two Champions
Duke's tennis program has produced two Honda Award winners of its own. Separated by a decade, but united by the same standard of excellence. Vanessa Webb claimed the honor in 1999, with Mallory Cecil following in 2009.
Cecil remembers the moment she learned she had won with striking clarity and honesty.
"I'll never forget hearing that I had won the award and honestly didn't know what it was about or represented," Cecil recalls. What she discovered in her research resonated strongly with her. The Honda Award, she learned, wasn't just about performance as she had originally assumed, but a recognition of her whole person.
"That just made me feel really seen, not just for what I had achieved, but who I was and what I embodied," Cecil said. "There is life after tennis. It was very affirming to know that no matter what I go and do after sports, the ingredients inside of me for greatness, for excellence, remain there."
Cecil points to indecision as the obstacle that shaped her most—specifically the weight of deciding whether to go to college, when and where.
"Not making a decision is also a decision," Cecil reflected.
It was only when she ripped off the band aid and committed to enrolling at Duke in January to join the women's tennis team that things really clicked.
"My vision just narrowed in, and I was really able to take off the weight of everything else and focus on the things right in front of me. There was just such a freedom in that."
Cecil draws a direct line from her tennis mindset to how she approaches life today.
"In tennis, you play the point that's in front of you," added Cecil. "You move on from it — good or bad — and make a decision on how to play the next one. In my life today, it's really just trying to make the best next decision and move on."
When Cecil reflects on the Honda Award and the journey to it, she returns again and again to the women around her.
"I've just been surrounded by incredibly strong women who have been great leaders and great mentors to me," Cecil said. "Leadership is like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it."
Her 2009 teammates, who won the national championship together, were foundational. "I still remember feeling so incredibly supported by every single one of them," said Cecil. "They believed in me and then I believed in myself. As women, we really do build on the shoulders of those who came before us."
Perseverance, of course, is not unique to sport. It is the common language of life for anyone who has ever pushed through something hard. For Cecil, tennis was simply where she learned to speak that language fluently.
"Sports gave me an environment where I could learn how to mentally, physically and emotionally persevere through trying seasons and experience the fruit of overcoming. That's an incredible skill that has translated into everything I've done since," Cecil said.
A Golden Moment in a Transformational Year
The CWSA's 50th Anniversary is not an ordinary milestone. During the 2025-26 season, the organization has launched a nationwide celebration visiting campuses across the country, gathering stories of the powerful female athletes. The culmination is the largest assembly of winners ever on July 26-27 in New York City, where legends such as Caitlin Clark, Mia Hamm, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Katie Ledecky will gather alongside the new Class of 2026. It will be broadcast live nationally on CBS Sports Network on July 27.
Both Nirapathpongporn and Cecil see the anniversary as a moment that extends far beyond their own careers. Nirapathpongporn looks ahead to the young girls in Thailand and around the world who will see what's possible.
"I really hope the Honda Award continues to give recognition to women athletes in the world," she said. "It will give further inspiration to the next generations."
For Cecil, the six-year-old picking up a racket for the first time deserves the same opportunities that shaped her own career.
"These entities that continue to push for the advancement and growth of female athletes are incredibly important. I give my eternal gratitude to all of them," Cecil said.
For Duke, the 50th anniversary is an opportunity to do what the Blue Devils have always done best — celebrate their legacy of excellence and use it to inspire what comes next. Nine award winners. Two sports at the top of their fields; half a century of the nation's best.
The story is already extraordinary. The next chapter in the story of strong female athletes is still being written.
For more information on the Collegiate Women Sports Awards 50th Anniversary, visit collegiatewomensportsawards.com.
#GoDuke
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