All losses come with lessons.
Saturday, Duke collected its first loss of the 2025 season. After storming back against No. 20 South Carolina on Friday, the Blue Devils couldn’t complete their comeback against No. 5 Virginia Saturday; they fell 3-4.
“I'm proud of how we competed,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “I think that you know, we have a chance to be a really good team."
But his team's shortcomings are clear to him. “We just have to get off the better start at the beginning of sets. We can't get down to 0-30,” Ashworth added. “It starts with our doubles.”
The Blue Devils started the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Charlottesville by taking down South Carolina 4-1 Friday despite dropping the doubles point. Duke came roaring back after being down 0-3 on three singles courts in the opening set.
Freshman Irina Balus and senior Emma Jackson mounted large comebacks against their Gamecock opponents to set Duke back on track. After dropping her first set 1-6, Balus battled in the next two sets to collect a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 win against 17th-ranked Sarah Hamner, putting Duke one match away from advancing.
Jackson got her 14th career clinch point for Duke as she returned from a 2-5 deficit to force the first set to a tiebreak that she then dominated, 7-1. She didn’t look back as she finished the match for Duke with a 6-2 final set.
Duke, however, couldn’t pull off the comeback twice in one weekend. Down, again, after doubles, the Blue Devils never took the lead from the Cavaliers.
Duke was still able to keep the match against No. 5 Virginia relatively close, with it all coming down to Jackson on court two. The Blue Devils won the first set on four out of six courts, switching the momentum after their doubles loss with wins from Balus, Ellie Coleman and sophomore transfer Eleana Yu. The three of them forced the match to a 3-3 tie.
Jackson, ranked 25th in singles, dropped the second set 1-6 to her 34th-ranked opponent after never trailing in the first,which she had won 6-1. But Elaine Chervinsky got a 2-0 lead to open the third set before Jackson tied it at 2-2. In a key deuce point, Chervinsky took a 3-2 lead, then made it 4-2. Running Jackson all over the court, Chervinksy won back-to-back key deuce points to clinch the match for the Cavaliers with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity after that doubles, and you know, we did a good job of fighting and keeping Virginia on the court,” Ashworth said.
Despite only having one loss on the season — this weekend’s — Ashworth has been unsatisfied with Duke’s doubles performance for the past three weeks. He will have his team focus intensely on doubles during this week.
“We didn’t honestly have the chance to work on what we wanted to work on during the week. We just had people sick, not feeling well this week,” he said. “It’s definitely something that has to be the focus of what we do over the next week, two weeks, three weeks, until we get it right.”
The dropped doubles point against Virginia marked Duke’s third lost doubles point in six matches, though five of those have been wins.
Doubles contests are key in college tennis, as they quickly set the other team in an uphill battle that requires sweeping over half of the remaining matches to win. As Duke struggles in doubles matches and early sets, comeback wins will become unsustainable.
The ITA Kickoff weekend and the match against Virginia provided a big opportunity for the Blue Devils to capitalize on their momentum from last weekend and defeat the current ACC powerhouse. They didn’t make this one happen, but Duke’s schedule nonetheless leaves it many tennis strongholds to battle.
“We have some great matches coming up and a tough schedule, and we’ll give ourselves plenty of chances,” Ashworth said. “It’s a tough schedule as anyone in the country is playing. We’re excited for what lies ahead.”
The Blue Devils will face No. 15 Ohio State Saturday at home.
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