Digging deep, No. 9 Duke defeated SMU 4-2 Sunday in Durham to remain undefeated in the conference.
With the spring season underway, The Chronicle is polling readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week, the honor goes to Ellie Coleman of Duke women’s tennis.
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.
Duke women’s tennis welcomed familiar ACC in-state rivals this past weekend in Ambler Tennis Stadium. In her second top-10 match clincher, senior Ellie Coleman stepped up again to secure the victory for the Blue Devils against N.C. State, and sophomore transfer Eleana Yu stepped up to clinch in a tiebreaker for Duke on Sunday against Wake Forest. The Blue Devils remained undefeated in ACC play.
With the spring season underway, The Chronicle is polling readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week, the honor goes to Liv Hovde of Duke women’s tennis.
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.
Despite losing the doubles point against the Yellow Jackets Friday and racking up a 3-1 deficit, the Blue Devils snatched a 4-3 victory. Their momentum continued on Sunday with a handy 4-0 victory against the Tigers. Senior Emma Jackson, a fixture of the team over the past four years, clinched both matches with dominant singles performances.
Duke’s women tennis dove head first into ACC conference play on the road, securing two big wins against Boston College and Syracuse. Winning in doubles against both teams and earning early wins in singles, the Blue Devils dominated this weekend with scores of 4-0 against the Eagles and 4-1 against the Orange.
Duke women’s tennis welcomed the two fiercest Big Ten rivals to Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center for Valentine’s Day weekend. After falling 4-3 to the 17th-ranked Buckeyes Friday, the Blue Devils rallied to take down the sixth-ranked Wolverines 4-3 Sunday at home.
The Blue Devils started the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Charlottesville by taking down South Carolina 4-1 Friday despite dropping the doubles point. 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’s spring season kicked off two weeks ago. The Blue Devils have already defeated a top-10 opponent and remain undefeated through four matches. Even with these strong starts, they have a tough schedule ahead. Thankfully, they also have a talented new roster to match.
After defeating No. 10 Pepperdine Friday, No. 11 Duke swept both Virginia Tech and N.C. Central 4-0 Monday. While both matches were played to clinch, Duke only dropped one match the entire day, and when the remaining matches were suspended, Duke was leading on every court.
After opening the match by conceding the doubles point, the eleventh-ranked Blue Devils made a steady comeback in singles, with junior Katie Codd clinching a 4-3 victory for the team. Friday’s match marked the second time Codd has clinched a victory for Duke in her career.
Soaring to a 6-1 victory over James Madison, the Blue Devils got a dominating and confidence-building start to their season.
Although Ellie Coleman and Irina Balus fell in the quarterfinals, this tournament was a product of hard-earned work and success from the Blue Devil squad. Senior Emma Jackson reached the round of 32 of singles play in her second appearance in the tournament. Stanford transfer Eleana Yu and sophomore Shavit Kimchi fell alongside Balus in the first round of play.
Balus and Coleman powered back to win the second set 6-4, and then crushed Pennsylvania’s Esha Velaga and Lara Stojanovski 10-2 in the third-set tiebreaker of the Sectional semifinal, guaranteeing them a spot in the NCAA Doubles Championships, which will take place in Waco, Texas. On the singles side of the draw, senior Emma Jackson also qualified for the individual championships, joining Balus, Coleman and sophomore transfer Eleana Yu.
The championship was the highlight of strong performances from the entirety of head coach Jamie Ashworth’s squad over the weekend, one which saw three Blue Devils in the semifinals and four in the quarterfinals.
Senior Emma Jackson outlasted her teammates in the draw, reaching the consolation round of 16 following two ranked wins Friday. Despite dropping her first main match on Wednesday to Vanderbilt’s Bridget Stammel 7-5, 6-3, the La Grange Park, Ill., native came back the next day to defeat Auburn’s Ava Hrastar in three sets.
Although the forecast was cloudy over Chewning Tennis Center, the Blue Devils started their season off on the right foot with strong results in both singles and doubles.
Duke women's tennis lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, this time to Tennessee in Knoxville.
