No. 10 Duke Battles Past Northwestern

Wednesday, March 23

Durham, N.C.

3 p.m.

Duke University

Northwestern

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 10 Duke Battles Past Northwestern

3/23/2022 9:54:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Final Box (PDF)

DURHAM – No. 10 Duke (11-1, 6-0 ACC) women's tennis grinded out a hard-fought victory, battling past Northwestern, 4-1, Wednesday afternoon at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Stadium.

The Blue Devil duo of junior Chloe Beck and freshman Ellie Coleman picked up the first victory of the afternoon as they raced past Sydney Pratt and Hannah McColgan (6-1) on court two. Northwestern got one back in the top slot behind a 6-3 defeat of Duke's 75th-ranked tandem of senior Margaryta Bilokin and graduate student Eliza Omirou, setting up a winner-take-all match to decide the doubles point.

Over in flight three, senior Kelly Chen and sophomore Karolina Berankova faced a two-game deficit with the Wildcats needing just one more game to win the doubles matchup. Chen and Berankova never wavered as the Duke pair showed its resiliency and rattled off the next three games, before ultimately heading into a tiebreaker with the score at 6-6. Northwestern jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker and looked to have momentum but once again Chen and Berankova showed their fight, rallying past Briana Crowley/Christina Hand to take the tiebreaker and claim the match 7-6 (6), and doubles point, for the Blue Devils.

"We survived," said head coach Jamie Ashworth. "It really was a battle of survival. [We] survived the doubles after being down. I'm proud of the effort they put in, never doubting in the doubles because we were definitely down in the three doubles. Kelly [Chen] and Karolina [Berankova] had never practiced together before being paired up. They stayed true to each other and true to what we needed to do to win that doubles point."

Duke struck first when the action shifted to singles and extended its advantage to 3-0 via wins in straight sets. Beck doubled the home team's advantage as the seventh-ranked junior defeated Maria Shusharina (6-0, 6-2) in flight two. Coleman was next, pulling out a tight 6-3, 6-4 win at number five against Justine Leong.

Northwestern (7-5, 2-0 ACC) got on the board and trimmed the lead to a pair as Christina Hand took down Omirou in a tightly-contested 7-5, 6-3 matchup on court six.

Georgia Drummy clinched the match for the Blue Devils shortly afterwards in flight one. The 20th-ranked senior battled back from a set down to defeat Clarissa Hand in three sets (4-6, 6-3, 6-1) to secure Duke's eighth straight win.

Up Next
The Blue Devils hit the road for four consecutive ACC matches beginning with a trip to Florida for contests against Florida State and No. 10 Miami. Duke will square off against the Seminoles Friday at 4 p.m., before closing the weekend with a top-10 Sunday matinee against the Hurricanes at 11 a.m.

RESULTS
Singles (2,5,6,1*)
1. #20 Georgia Drummy (DU) def. #106 Clarissa Hand (NUW) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
2. #7 Chloe Beck (DU) def. Maria Shusharina (NUW) 6-0, 6-2
3. Kelly Chen (DU) vs. Sydney Pratt (NUW) 2-6, 7-5, 1-2, unfinished
4. Margaryta Bilokin (DU) vs. Ema Lazic (NUW) 7-5, 1-6, 0-3, unfinished
5. Ellie Coleman (DU) def. Justine Leong (NUW) 6-3, 6-4
6. Christina Hand (NUW) def. Eliza Omirou (DU) 7-5, 6-3

Doubles (2,1,3)
1. Clarissa Hand/Maria Shusharina (NUW) def. #75 Margaryta Bilokin/Eliza Omirou (DU) 6-3
2. Chloe Beck/Ellie Coleman (DU) def. Sydney Pratt/Hannah McColgan (NUW) 6-1
3. Kelly Chen/Karolina Berankova (DU) def. Briana Crowley/Christina Hand (NUW) 7-6 (8-6)

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