DURHAM – The 15th-ranked Duke women’s tennis team opened the 2024 dual match slate on Saturday inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center with a 5-2 victory over SMU. The win for the Blue Devils was the 15th straight at home in Sheffield to move Duke to 1-0 on the year.
The Blue Devils collected a thrilling doubles victory on court three to clinch the first point of the match as the graduate student duo of Brianna Shvets and Iuliia Bryzgalova came-from-behind to post a 7-6 win with a 7-3 tiebreaker.
How It Happened
• The Blue Devil duo of Ellie Coleman and Shavit Kimchi opened with a 3-0 lead over Caroline McGinley and Maja Makoric on court two, but the SMU tandem responded by winning two straight games to cut into the Duke lead, 3-2. Coleman and Kimchi then won three straight to take the match, 6-2.
• SMU’s Taylor Johnson and Lana Mavor had a hot start on court one against Duke’s Karolina Berankova and Emma Jackson taking a 2-0 lead. The Blue Devils trailed 3-2 and dropped a key deuce point to fall behind 4-2 and eventually dropped a 6-3 decision.
• It all came down to court three with Duke’s Brianna Shvets and Iuliia Bryzgalova versus Hadley Doyle and Drew Morris of SMU. The Mustangs won the first game, but the Blue Devils came back to win three straight to take a 3-1 advantage. Doyle and Morris responded by winning four straight games to go ahead 5-3. Shvets and Bryzgalova would not give up as they registered a key deuce point to cut the lead to 5-4 and then evened the match, 5-5. The Blue…
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