Codd Clinches Duke’s 4-3 Win Against No. 10 Pepperdine

Friday, January 17

Durham, N.C.

6:00 PM

Duke University

Pepperdine

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Codd Clinches Duke’s 4-3 Win Against No. 10 Pepperdine

1/17/2025 11:10:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery Codd Interview Ashworth Interview

DURHAM, N.C. – After falling behind early, the 11th-ranked Duke women's tennis team came-from-behind to defeat 10th-ranked Pepperdine, 4-3, on Friday evening inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Duke dropped the doubles point, but was able to take four of the six singles courts to get the win. Junior Katie Codd clinched the victory on court six, which marked her second match-clinching win over the last two years against a top 15 opponent. The victory marked the fifth-straight win against a top 10 opponent at home in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Queen of a Top 10 Clinch Point ???? pic.twitter.com/c9ldlAM8qi
— Duke Women's Tennis (@DukeWTEN) January 18, 2025

With the victory, the Blue Devils moved to 2-0 on the season, while the Waves fell to 0-1.

How It Happened

Both Pepperdine and Duke took No. 3 and No. 2 doubles courts, respectively, to open the match.
Taylor Goetz and Anastasiia Grechkina of Pepperdine jumped out to a 4-0 lead on court three and eventually registered a 6-1 victory over Eleana Yu and Ava Krug.
The Blue Devil tandem of Emma Jackson and Shavit Kimchi came right back on court two and went ahead 3-0, before winning, 6-1, against 101st-ranked Liam Oved and Alexia Harmon of the Waves.
The deciding doubles point came down to court one with 10th-ranked Ellie Coleman and Irina Balus against Pepperdine's 14th-ranked Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang.
With a 2-0 lead early, the Waves were controlling the match from the start and led 3-1 through the first four games.The Blue Devils would battle back from a 4-2 deficit to even the match, 4-4.After falling behind, 5-4, Duke broke Pepperdine and then Coleman served to give Duke a 6-5 advantage.Broadus and Yang were able to even the match, 6-6, to send to a tiebreaker.
Pepperdine opened the tiebreaker with a 3-0 lead, but Balus and Coleman came back to tie the contest, 4-4.The Waves though took back control and won two straight points to go ahead 6-4.After a great return by Coleman, Duke cut the lead to 6-5, but Pepperdine was able to clinch the doubles point with the win, 7-5.
The Blue Devils came back in singles and won the first set on four of the six courts to get the momentum back.
Duke was able to even the match, 1-1, as 36th-ranked Balus registered a 6-4, 3-0 (retired) win over 90th-ranked Oved. Balus, who is from Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, jumped out to a 3-0 lead and led 4-1, but Oved mounted a comeback to even the score, 4-4.Balus won a crucial deuce point to take a 5-4 lead and then clinched the first set, 6-4.Leading, 3-0, in the second Oved was forced to retire.
The Waves went back ahead, 2-1, with a 6-3, 6-2 win on court four as Grechkina defeated Coleman.
Duke was able to even the match on court five as 49th-ranked Kimchi never trailed against 112th-ranked Harmon winning, 6-3, 6-2.Kimchi built 4-1 leads in both sets and was able to close out her 16th career dual match victory.
A couple of minutes later, the Blue Devils collected their first lead of the match as 30th-ranked Yu totaled a 6-1, 6-4 win over 61st-ranked Yang on court three.Yu, a native of Mason, Ohio, dropped the first game of her match, but responded with six straight wins to take the first set, 6-1.She then led 5-2 in the second set, before getting the crucial point in the end with a 6-4 second set victory to give Duke a 3-2 advantage.
On court one, 13th-ranked Broadus and 25th-ranked Jackson battled in a tight matchup with a pair of top 25-ranked student-athletes.Jackson never led in the first set, but came back from being down 5-2, to evening the contest, 5-5, before falling, 5-7.Jackson led 3-1 in the second set, but Broadus came back to even the score, 4-4, and won the match, 6-4, to once again even the contest.
The match all came down to court six.Duke's Katie Codd controlled the first set as she never trailed against Taylor Goetz and won, 6-3.In the second set, Goetz took a 3-1 lead, but Codd responded by winning five consecutive games to clinch the top 10 win for the Blue Devils with a 6-3 second set victory.

Notes

Irina Balus collected her third career ranked victory in singles and is now 9-2 on the season.
Katie Codd turned in her fourth career match-clinching win over her the last two years. Her victory against 14th-ranked NC State on the road a season ago also clinched the win for the Blue Devils. Codd is now 14-6 over her career in dual match play.
Sophomore Eleana Yu turned in her first dual match victory against a ranked opponent in her career at No. 3 singles.She is now 21-5 in singles over her career and 7-0 in dual matches.It was also her third career win against a ranked opponent.
Duke is now 8-4 against top 10 opponents in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center and winners of five in a row.Overall, the Blue Devils are now 23-9 against top 10 opponents at home since 1999.

Quotes

"It was a tough match, a tough win for us. Losing the doubles point wasn't something we set out to do there, but we got behind too quickly, too early in two of those doubles matches.We were able to extend it and give ourselves a chance.I told them 'look we have the momentum going into singles even though we lost the doubles point.We came back in that doubles match and extended that match.'I thought we did a good job in singles overcoming that doubles, like you said, against a team that is top 10 in the country and had a lot of success over the last couple of years.We needed that match at the start our year.It is great for us and is a great building block for us.We are excited to see where that win takes us." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will host Virginia Tech (9 a.m.) and NCCU (6 p.m.) on Monday, Jan. 20 in Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's tennis, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWTEN".

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#11 Duke 4, #10 Pepperdine 3
January 17, 2025
Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center * Durham, N.C.

Doubles
1. #14 Savannah Broadus/Vivian Yang (Pepp) def. #10 Ellie Coleman/Irina Balus (DU) 7-6 (7-5)
2. Emma Jackson/Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. #101 Liam Oved/Alexia Harmon (Pepp) 6-1
3. Taylor Goetz/Anastasiia Grechkina (Pepp) def. Eleana Yu/Ava Krug (DU) 6-1

Singles
1. #13 Savannah Broadus (Pepp) def. #25 Emma Jackson (DU) 7-5, 6-4
2. #36 Irina Balus (DU) def. #90 Liam Oved (Pepp) 6-4, 3-0 retired
3. #30 Eleana Yu (DU) def. #61 Vivian Yang (Pepp) 6-1, 6-4
4. Anastasiia Grechkina (Pepp) def. Ellie Coleman (DU) 6-3, 6-2
5. #49 Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. #112 Alexia Harmon (Pepp) 6-3, 6-2
6. Katie Codd (DU) def. Taylor Goetz (Pepp) 6-2, 6-3
Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2,1*), Singles (2,4,5,3,1,6*)