Women’s tennis notched their fourth shutout of the season when they defeated Old Dominion, 7-0, at the Isenhour Tennis Center on Friday. The Wolfpack, ranked 31 in the nation, then went on the road to Winston-Salem and defeated Wake Forest, 6-1, on Sunday, winning their first ACC match of the season and bringing their overall record to 7-1 (1-0 ACC.) Coach Hans Olsen noticed the hard work behind the victories of the weekend.
“I think for us it was good because it built some mental toughness,” Olsen said. “Playing the matches all the way through and getting the results. Seven points in our favor. We had to work for them. It was good to see the girls stick with it. Some of the matches, it was nice to see us run the table and win decisively.”
The Pack started the matches against Old Dominion with a couple of new doubles teams, including Joelle Kissell and Christy Sipes along with Tatiana Illova and Ashley Miller. #7 doubles team Sanaa Bhambri and Sandhya Nagaraj collected the first win for the Pack, deciding the match at 8-1. The new pairing of Kissel/Sipes fell but Illova/Miller won, 8-4, clinching the first point of the day. Olsen was impressed with the new pairings.
“We saw some good things,” Olsen said. “We also saw some things that they really needed to improve. It was good to see what they would do in a pressure situation and see how their chemistry would bring them together.”
The rest of the singles matches against Old Dominion were one-sided victories except for one, played by Sipes, in the #5 spot. After winning her first set 6-3, she lost the second 1-6. A difficult battle followed but Sipes fought her way to victory, winning 10-8. Olsen recognized that she was not playing to her full potential but was proud of her determination.
“I didn’t think she played at her best,” Olsen said. “She had to get her mind on what she was doing. When it came down to deciding the match, she really served well to decide things in the end. Her serve was much stronger, which I think was the deciding factor and she found a way, on a bad day, to fight her way through to get the win. We usually have at least one match that will be a barn-burner style type of match.”
The women’s tennis team will take to the court again Duke travels to Raleigh on Friday.
