Rain or shine, the Blue Devils took care of business.
Despite a stormy start at San Diego State March 13, Duke rallied to dominate the Aztecs 4-0 in their first meeting since 1992. Duke then returned to a sunny Durham to handle Yale 7-0 on Tuesday. This was the seventh-ranked Blue Devils’ third straight shutout match and first match of the season in their outdoor Ambler Stadium.
Thursday vs. San Diego State
The match started at 6 p.m. — four hours behind schedule — as the gloomy conditions persisted.
“I can't remember, in my time at Duke, playing a match where we practice one of the five days before a match,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “... We got here on Monday and didn't practice and couldn't practice on Tuesday and couldn't practice yesterday.”
“For us, mentally, we just try to prepare before the game,” sophomore Shavit Kimchi said. “It’s not going to be easy, and we all told ourselves, “It might be nasty today, it might not be the cleanest, but we're here to fight. We're here to get the job done.”
Duke continued its strong doubles performance, with senior Ellie Coleman and freshman Irina Balus disposing of their opponents 7-5. Kimchi and freshman Ava Krug, meanwhile, lost their set 6-2. With the point in limbo, senior Emma Jackson and freshman Liv Hovde delivered for the Blue Devils with a 6-4 victory.
“They've hit 1000 balls this spring, they've hit millions of balls in their lives, and they know how to play tennis,” Ashworth said of the team. “I think that they did a really good job of handling that adversity, because it easily could have gone the other way.”
Moving into singles, Kimchi’s performance remained sluggish but competitive. Losing the first set 6-4, the Sdey Hemed, Israel, native pushed through long, rhythmic rallies from the baseline to nab the second set 6-4.
Meanwhile, Hovde and sophomore Eleana Yu leapt out to early leads to win their first sets, 6-3, 6-2. Yu went on to wrap up her second set 6-1, increasing Duke’s margin to 2-0. As Hovde’s second set progressed, the Daniel Island, S.C., native and her opponent tried to use high, deep shots to get the ball out of the other’s reach. Although each game remained competitive, she edged ahead and continued to build each point for a 7-5 win.
Junior Katie Codd narrowly secured her first set 7-6 with a 7-3 tiebreaker, while Jackson stormed her way to a commanding 6-1 win. In Jackson’s second set, however, the La Grange Park, Ill., native found herself evenly matched and pushed around the baseline, losing 6-3 as she attempted to respond.
With one set in the bag, Kimchi was ready for a final showdown. With the match score 3-0, it fell to Kimchi, Jackson, Codd or Balus to clinch and extend the Blue Devils’ win streak to six matches.
“Eventually, I got to the second set, I got a lot of confidence from that, and then [Coach] Jamie [Ashworth] was doing a great job with trying to motivate me when I was playing the third set, and pushed me to do the right thing and make a better decision when I'm playing,” Kimchi said.
Jackson and Balus began their third sets well before Kimchi. However, as they remained bogged down in dogfights against stubborn yet increasingly tired opposition, Kimchi pulled ahead and started her match-deciding set. Jackson made her opponent run all around the court, her boundary-testing shots getting the better of San Diego State’s Gloria Alogo, while Balus’s early lead slowly narrowed.
Taking advantage of her reach and height, Kimchi steadied herself and put the Aztecs’ Zoe Olmos on the defensive. Her shots remained patient as her opponent’s overtures failed to yield a momentum-breaking mistake. Leading 5-0, Kimchi became more aggressive; with an ace aimed down the center of the court, she clinched the ninth match of her career.
“[Kimchi] didn't have the best of fall seasons, to be honest with you. I think she's coming around and starting to play like she's capable of playing,” Ashworth explained. “I've talked to her a lot … We've not wavered in our belief [in] her.”
Tuesday vs. Yale
Physically, the stands of the outdoor Ambler Stadium were pretty sparse. But what was lacking in occupation was made up for in noise — specifically that of the rowdy Duke men’s tennis team seated above court five.
“You know what’s better than one bagel?” shouted a player.
“TWO!” responded the rest of the team.
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The bagel in this scenario refers to the “0” in a 6-0 first set, which was delivered hot by Duke’s Coleman to Yale’s Mirabelle Brettkelly. A double-bagel was possible for Coleman.
Yet, the Midland, Mich., native’s game streak ended when Brettkelly finally managed to hold onto her serve to make it 1-1 in the second set.
At deuce, Coleman sprinted to reach a dropshot from Brettkelly, lunging to make contact with the ball before dropping her racket and falling to the ground. The senior’s hustle was rewarded — the ball landed short on the other side, and Brettkelly was unable to reach it. Coleman continued her hustle against her Bulldog opponent’s newfound stamina and ended the match 6-0, 6-4.
Coleman was the second singles win in her team's eventual sweep of Yale, as Duke won all six singles matches plus the doubles point.
“We want to make sure that we continue to make this a really tough place for people to play,” Ashworth said. “Whether that’s the crowd, whether that’s our men’s team [being] out here and being a little bit vocal, whatever it is. We want to make sure that teams know … It’s one of the tougher places to play in the country.”
Not every set came easily, though. After double-faulting in the first-set tiebreaker, Kimchi was down 3-1 on court three. Despite only a two-point difference, it looked as though the momentum had shifted to Yale’s Julia Werdiger.
But, as the late-afternoon heat wore off, the sophomore Blue Devil kept her cool — winning the next six points to close out the set 7-6 and winning her next 6-2.
“The biggest thing for us in those moments and those matches is not to play scared,” Ashworth said. “For the most part, we did that well … I think in singles, we’re just deeper than them.”
This roster depth was obvious from the start. In singles, Duke won the first game on every court except court three. Irina Balus, ranked No. 12 nationally, overpowered Yale’s Shyla Aggarwal for an early 3-0 lead on court two. The freshman star dropped her first game in a disappointing deuce loss, which had been replayed due to a stray ball from a neighboring court. However, Balus was unfazed and went right back to overpowering Aggarwal. At 5-2, the Slovakia native hit a deep shot down the line to break the Bulldog yet again. The Blue Devil quickly closed out a second set at 6-2, earning Duke its first of six singles points.
Blue Devils Eleana Yu and Katie Codd on courts four and six, respectively, both earned four straight points to win their first sets 6-3. Later, Yu closed out her match 6-3, 6-4, and Codd finished 6-3, 6-3.
The first win of the night started with Kimchi and partner Ava Krug in their doubles matchup against Angela Huang and Werdiger on court two. The Yale tandem suffered many unforced errors that gave the more consistent Kimchi-Krug pairing the upper hand. The Blue Devils came out with a 6-2 win, redeeming their doubles loss to San Diego State.
Duke’s Hovde and Jackson also pulled their weight, winning 6-4 against Erin Ha and Brettkelly on court three. The Blue Devils’ win here was enough to earn Duke the overall doubles point, halting Balus and Coleman’s 4-4 contest on court one.
“I think as a team we are doing really well,” Hovde said. “Every match is tough, so I think we're really resilient out here. It was our first outdoor match [at home], so I think we did really well.”
Duke will be back at Ambler Stadium Friday at 6 p.m. to kick-off conference play against No.10 N.C. State.
Samanyu Gangappa is a Trinity sophomore and local/national news editor for the news department.