CARY — Duke’s undefeated ACC season and 16-match winning streak is snapped.
On Saturday, No. 1-seed Duke — ranked No. 4 nationally — fell 4-2 to No. 4-seed Virginia — No. 7 nationally — in the ACC Championship semifinals. The Blue Devils have now received two of its three losses this season at the hands of Virginia.
Despite being only 30 minutes down the road at Cary Tennis Park, the Blue Devils played as if they were in Charlottesville, Va., facing down on Virginia’s home courts.
“For the first time in a while, I felt like we were playing an away match. I felt like they were on top of us. Honestly, Virginia was better emotionally than we were, and you’re not going to beat a team like that if you don’t have emotion,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said.
Duke (21-3) started the morning off slow, while the Cavaliers (20-4) wasted no time. On court one, Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky — the national No. 1 doubles duo — rolled over the Blue Devil tandem of Irina Balus and Ellie Coleman. Duke was holding out hope for the doubles point on court two as Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug had a 3-2 lead before Virginia came roaring back. The Cavaliers went up a break, won three games in a row and emerged victorious 6-4.
“The slow start on court one really hurt us. We battled a little bit to try to get ourselves back into it, but they kind of took it to us in doubles,” Ashworth said.
Singles looked like a chance for the Blue Devils to turn it around, for it wasn’t the first time Duke had dropped the doubles point this season and battled back. Duke defeated then-No. 4 North Carolina 4-2 after dropping the doubles point brutally on the road.
Virginia had the momentum coming out of doubles, and Duke could not slow the match down. Balus, who is ranked 18th nationally in singles, struggled on court one, as she was defeated by the 33rd-ranked Chervinsky, 6-0, 6-2, giving the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead.
“She got down early, and then you start to have some self-doubts creep in. And then at the same time, your opponent is playing big and is gaining confidence,” Ashworth said of Balus’ performance. “She doesn’t usually get beaten in that way. When you lose a first set like that quickly, you’ve got to figure out a way to regroup, slow the match down and control the tempo, and she just didn’t do a great job.”
On court five, Kimchi provided hope for the Blue Devils as she amassed a quick 6-2, 6-1 victory and never trailed, making it 2-1.
Duke had won the first set on courts six and three, with Eleana Yu on court four losing a tiebreaker 7-3 for her first set. At No. 1 singles, freshman Liv Hovde fell 6-2, 6-2 to No. 20 Sara Ziodato after surrendering a key deuce point at 4-4, despite being up 30-0 in the game. Virginia was one win away from clinching their championship slot.
Even though Coleman was in a third set on court six, it all came down to Yu on court three, who, after losing the first-set tiebreaker, found herself unable to reset. Yu won a deuce point to make it 1-3 before she and her opponent traded service games until 2-4. Despite being up 40-0, Virginia’s Martina Genis Salas forced a deuce point that resulted in the Cavaliers going up two service breaks. Yu fell 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, clinching the match for Virginia.
Duke had defeated Georgia Tech, 4-1, the morning before and had to recover in time to face Virginia the next morning. Whether it was the back-to-back competition or the emotional environment, the Blue Devils weren’t able to get over the hump.
“You can’t let self-doubt creep in, putting my opponent on the pedestal [and thinking] ‘Oh, they’re playing so well.” … You play a point, you win the point, you lose a point, you get the next point. And tennis is just about gathering those points,” Ashworth said. “[The self-doubt] just kind of kept going, and we couldn’t stop that.”
It’s not Duke’s first painful ACC Championship loss. Last year, the Blue Devils fell 4-0 to rivals North Carolina in the quarterfinals and the 2023 season ended with a heartbreaking first-round loss to Georgia Tech.
“There’s people right on top of you,” Ashworth said. “Yes it’s down the street from Duke, and we had a lot of people here, but I think our intent as a team, we have to make it a home match in our heads. Be vocal and be loud and let the crowd feed off of us.”
The Blue Devils' season is not over yet, and they may have gotten a painful tournament loss out of the way before heading into the NCAA Tournament in two weeks time.
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