Duke women's tennis head coach Jamie Ashworth named ACC Coach of the Year

Duke's season featured its first ACC championship since 2012.
Duke's season featured its first ACC championship since 2012.

A few weeks removed from a Final Four run, the Blue Devils earned some conference recognition, beginning with their head coach.

Head coach Jamie Ashworth was named ACC Coach of the Year by the conference Thursday. Under Ashworth, Duke won its first ACC championship since 2012 in April and marched all the way to the national semifinal in Champaign, Ill., before falling to Oklahoma

He is joined on the All-ACC award list by senior Georgia Drummy and junior Chloe Beck as first-team selections, senior Kelly Chen as a second-team selection and freshman Emma Jackson, who earned a third-team nod.

With Thursday's announcement, Ashworth collected the conference's top coaching honor for the fourth time and first since 2018.

“First, I want to thank my peers in our conference that have recognized our accomplishments this year,” Ashworth said in a team release Thursday afternoon. “They are the ones who ‘live’ it every day like we do, and for them to see that means the world to us. This is an award that should be given to our entire team and support staff. It is truly a reflection of the work our team and those that surround our program have put in, which allowed us to have the success that we were able to have.”

Duke's four All-ACC selections are second only to North Carolina's five recipients and its two first-team selections are matched only by Miami. Beck and Drummy, both of whom were named ITA All-Americans earlier in the week, represent the Blue Devils on the top line after leading the way on court one and court two, respectively, with Beck notably compiling an 18-0 regular-season record.

Chen's second-team selection is her fourth in as many years, putting her in elite company as just the 16th Blue Devil to reach that milestone. Jackson, on the other hand, earned her first All-ACC honor after a successful freshman season highlighted by the clinching victory in the ACC tournament final.

“What a tremendous accomplishment for all four of our student-athletes,” Ashworth said in the release. “The ACC has been the toughest conference in the country the last few years, and for them to be recognized as they have been by our league’s coaches is something they should be proud of.”  


Jonathan Levitan

Jonathan Levitan is a Trinity senior and was previously sports editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.

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