In a matter of 20 seconds, roars from each end of the Chewning Tennis Center echoed towards the middle, breaking the dead silence.
Shavit Kimchi clinched her match on a deuce point, quickly celebrated and then sprinted across five courts to watch her teammate, Ellie Coleman, play her game, set and match point. When Coleman clinched — as she has now done three times against top-10 opponents — the team, fully united after Kimchi’s arrival, took to a huddle to celebrate its first win against North Carolina on the road for the first time since 2011.
“That’s the fastest I’ve seen Shavit run in a long time to get down to Ellie’s match,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said.
However, after the doubles point, it seemed as if the Blue Devils were enclosed by Carolina blue; the Tar Heels rolled comfortably 2-1 to start the match ahead.
Both of Duke’s top pairings — 13th-ranked Coleman with freshman Irina Balus and Ava Krug with Kimchi — started down three games. North Carolina’s ninth-ranked Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby capitalized on hung cross-court shots and took a 5-2 lead. However, double faults and net shots kept Krug and Kimchi alive before eventually falling 6-4. The sole bright spot in the Blue Devils’ doubles play was Liv Hovde and Emma Jackson’s 6-3 victory, marking their sixth consecutive as a pairing.
After a sloppy performance, the stands prepared for a swift Tar Heel victory. But despite the intense rivalry pressure, Duke just dug deeper.
“We needed to make a statement today,” Ashworth said. “I thought even though losing the doubles, we were composed, and it didn't phase us. We were like, ‘Okay, let's just go play singles.’”
And sure enough, the Blue Devils started hot — winning five of the first six sets.
Jackson kept her high energy from doubles, despite dropping the first game. Playing clean tennis with confidence, the senior hit strong down-the-line forehands to win four straight games. Tanguilig answered with two games to make it 4-3, but attempted an underhanded serve at set point that Jackson easily sniffed out. At that point, the La Grange Park, Ill., native could not be stopped. The moment that defined Jackson’s 6-0 bagel was her rally of repeated inside-out forehands towards Tanguilig’s backhand side. Jackson eventually forced a lob after breaking the pattern, then returned with an inside-out winner tucked on the alley line.
Hovde faced 15th-ranked Thea Rabman in the biggest match of her young Blue Devil career, and also ended victorious. The Daniel Island, S.C., native won four deuce points in the first set, propelling her 6-3. Hovde, the 2022 Wimbledon girls’ singles champion, has adapted well to the college game, and immediately responded with a dominant final game after losing her first match point .
“I think it took her a little while at first to get some match play and then get used to the college tennis atmosphere,” Ashworth said about the freshman. “I think she's been more comfortable with it. She's handled herself really well, keeps getting better and wants to keep getting better.”
"I felt like I just played my game really well and I didn't let anything get to me," Hovde said. “I think every match I'm getting better.”
The next two victories from Kimchi and Coleman secured the victory for the Blue Devils, as Eleana Yu’s match extended into a third set and Irina Balus lost a top-12 matchup to North Carolina’s Reese Brantmeier in two sets.
Kimchi had slower starts to the beginning of each set, but was able to comeback from 3-1 and 3-2 deficits to win 6-4, 6-4. In the type performance that is becoming classic for Coleman, the senior from Midland, Mich., rallied from the doubles loss with crucial points in a close first set. And when she was in the position to clinch her first victory over North Carolina, Coleman clutched yet again.
“It definitely took belief from everybody not getting dejected by that doubles [point] and knowing that we can keep bringing the energy,” Coleman said about the team performance. “Keeping the energy going helped us get our level up a little bit as we got into the singles matches.
Duke returns back home on Sunday to play SMU, hoping to stay undefeated in ACC play.
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