No. 5 Blue Devils Advance to ITA Kickoff Championship

DURHAM – The fifth-ranked Duke women’s tennis team opened the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Kickoff Weekend with a 4-0 victory over No. 4 seeded VCU on Saturday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center in Durham.  

The Blue Devils (4-0) advanced to Sunday’s championship match against No. 3 seeded Wisconsin (3-1), which will be held at 2 p.m., once again inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.  No. 4 seeded VCU (0-3) will face No. 2 seeded SMU (2-2) at 10 a.m., in the consolation match.  Wisconsin advanced to the championship match with a 4-2 win over SMU.  

How It Happened

•    The Blue Devils featured a solid start in doubles action going ahead 2-0 in each of the matches, including 3-0 starts on No. 1 and No. 3.

•    After going ahead, 2-0, on court No. 2, Duke’s duo of Ellie Coleman and Karolina Berankova dropped a couple of points to even the match, 2-2, against 30th-ranked Yelizaveta Karlova and Victoria Matasova.  Coleman/Berankova went on to win four out of the next five points to earn a 6-3 victory.  

•    On court No. 1, the Blue Devil tandem of 13th-ranked Chloe Beck and Cameron Morra led 4-0, before Victoria Smimova and Gabriela Davidescu won three straight points.  Beck/Morra then regrouped and won the last two points to take a 6-3 win and clinch the doubles point for Duke.

•    Duke’s Emma Jackson and Iuliia Bryzgalova were leading 5-3 when the doubles point was clinched against Anja Draskovic and Emma Valletta on court No. 3.

•    On court No. 3 in singles, 22nd-ranked Jackson did not lose a point in the first set against Davidescu and slotted the second point on the board for the Blue Devils with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Davidescu.  

•    With Duke leading 2-0, Bryzgalova registered a 6-3, 6-1 win over Valetta on court No. 4 to give the Blue Devils a 3-0 lead.  Bryzgalova dropped the first point in the second set, but came back to win six straight to take the match.

•    On court No. 6, graduate student Brianna Shvets collected a 6-2, 6-2 win over Draskovic for her third dual match win of the season and the match-clinching point for the Blue Devils to defeat the Rams, 4-0.    

•    Beck, Morra and Coleman were leading their matches in the second set when the match was clinched.

Notes

•    The Blue Devils improved to 27-2…