There’s a fine line between good and great in the world of collegiate tennis.

Sophomore Denise Dy may have just crossed it.

Dy capped off her historic run at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Palo Alto, Calif., with a 6-3, 6-3 win in the finals over top-seeded Jana Juricova of California.

“Denise just rocked today,” head coach Jill Hultquist said. “It was a great match and the same match that she has been playing all week — just really solid tennis.”

Dy is the first Husky to capture the women’s title at this tournament, which features some of the Pac-10’s top players. Because of her victory, the native of San Jose, Calif., gets an automatic bid to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.

Assistant coach Damon Coupe said that Dy has had trouble controlling her mental game on the court. While she had the potential to beat anyone in the country, the mental toughness just wasn’t consistently there last year. Apparently, that has changed.

“She really just did a great job of keeping herself composed in between points,” Coupe said. “She never got riled, and she was able to refocus every single time. A lot of the coaches who had seen Denise play before were impressed with her composure out there.”

Dy, who also defeated No. 5 Hilary Barte and Mallory Burdette — both of Stanford — on her way to the final, was happy with her efforts. But the sophomore is still hungry for more.

“I feel really happy and proud,” Dy said, “but not yet satisfied. I want to do better. This was a big tournament for me, but I want to have the same results in future tournaments, too. Hopefully it will continue.”

Mental toughness, stamina and pure athleticism were all key to Dy’s title run. Dy said her experience last year helped her realize the rigor of college tennis.

“One thing I learned my freshman year is that in college tennis, you have to be really fit sometimes,” said Dy, who stayed in Seattle this summer to train and keep her game in top form. “If you’re fit, you have less to worry about.”

A strong forehand was Dy’s biggest weapon this week. Her opponents were aware of this and were forced to hit to her backhand, which caused a lot of confusion for her competitors.

“All the girls were trying to avoid my forehand, which caused a lot of errors,” Dy said. “Also, if they brought me [to the net], I could do stuff at the net so sometimes a lot of them were confused with what they had to do with me.”

Dy will now join teammate Venise Chan in New Haven, Conn., for the National Indoor Championships Nov. 5-8. Chan, a junior, already qualified for the tournament because of her outstanding run at the ITA All-American Championships two weeks ago.

On a disappointing note, the impressive run for the doubles pair of Dy and senior Joyce Ardies came to an end yesterday. The duo lost to the second-seeded Stanford pair of Barte and Burdette and will now hope for an at-large bid to Indoors.

Reach reporter Taylor Soper at sports@dailyuw.com.