No. 9 Duke Registers 4-2 Win at No. 4 North Carolina

Wednesday, March 26

Chapel Hill, N.C.

5:00 PM

Duke University

North Carolina

Photo by: Bri Shaw, Duke Athletics

No. 9 Duke Registers 4-2 Win at No. 4 North Carolina

3/26/2025 9:52:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery Box Score (PDF)Hovde Interview Coleman Interview Ashworth Interview

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The ninth-ranked Duke women's tennis team went on the road Wednesday and registered an impressive 4-2 victory over fourth-ranked North Carolina at the Chewning Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.

Senior Ellie Coleman collected her third match-clinching victory against a top-10 opponent this season, while Duke also received singles wins from freshman Liv Hovde, senior Emma Jackson and sophomore Shavit Kimchi.

The Blue Devils remained undefeated in the ACC with a 7-0 ledger, while moving to 15-2 overall. The Tar Heels suffered their first league loss dropping to 15-4 overall and 6-1 in the ACC.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke got off to a very slow start in doubles, but tried to make a comeback for the doubles point.
On court one, 20th-ranked Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton of North Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Duke's 13th-ranked Ellie Coleman and Irina Balus. Coleman then served for the Blue Devils' first point of the match to cut the lead to 3-1. UNC took the score to 5-1 and ended up winning, 6-2.
After dropping the first game, Duke's tandem of Emma Jackson and Liv Hovde won three games in a row to take a 3-1 lead versus Tatum Evans and Lindsay Zink on court three. UNC won a deuce point to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Blue Devils won the next two games to go ahead, 5-3. Duke went on to win the match, 6-3.
On court two, North Carolina's ninth-ranked Susanna Maltby and Carson Tanguilig got off to a hot start leading 3-0, but the Blue Devil duo of Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug broke the Tar Heels and then won another game to cut the lead to 3-2.Duke nearly evened the match, but UNC won a deuce point to take a 4-2 lead. After the Tar Heels went ahead, 5-2, Duke tried to come back winning two games in a row, but UNC was able to finish the match, 6-4, to take the doubles point.
Duke turned the match around quickly in singles winning the first set on five of the six courts.
Senior Emma Jackson continued her hot start to the dual match season winning her seventh-straight contest with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over 43rd-ranked Tanguilig on court three. After dropping the first game, Jackson reeled off four wins in a row to take a 4-1 advantage in the first set. Tanguilig battled back to cut the deficit to 4-3, but Jackson won a key deuce point to go ahead, 5-3. Jackson, who is from La Grange Park, Ill., went on to finish off the first set with a 6-3 victory and then didn't drop a game in the second set winning 6-0.
With the match even, 1-1, ninth-ranked Brantmeier totaled a 6-3, 6-3 victory on court one against Duke's 12th-ranked Balus to regain the lead, 2-1.
The Blue Devils, though, were in a great position leading on four courts.
Hovde, a rookie from Daniel Island, S.C., turned in her best performance of her short career with the Blue Devils on court two against 15th-ranked Thea Rabman. Hovde never trailed in her match winning four key deuce points early in the first set to go ahead, 4-2, before finishing out the first set with a 6-3 advantage. In the second set, Hovde built a 2-1 lead, but Rabman evened the score, 2-2. Hovde won another key deuce point to take a 5-3 lead and then won 6-4 to tie the match, 2-2.
The Blue Devils had the momentum and finished off the match in a span of approximately 20 seconds.
Kimchi came back from being down 3-1 to Hamilton in the first set to take a 4-3 lead and then won the first, 6-4. In the second set, Hamilton jumped out to a 2-0 lead and was ahead, 3-2, before Kimchi once again battled back to go up 5-3. Hamilton tried to make a slight comeback, but the Israel product closed the door winning 6-4, which gave Duke a 3-2 lead.
Once again, 125th-ranked Coleman came through in the clutch with a 6-4, 6-3 win versus Claire Hill. A native of Midland, Mich., Coleman got off to a 4-2 lead early, but Hill came back to even the ledger, 4-4. Coleman was tough at the end winning two games in a row to take the first set, 6-4. In the second set, Hill took a 1-0 lead after winning a deuce point and led 2-1. Coleman was too strong though as she won three games in a row to take a 4-2 lead.After Hill won the next game, Coleman closed it out with a 6-3 victory to give Duke the team win, 4-2.
When the match was clinched, 41st-ranked Duke sophomore Eleana Yu was in a tight match with 48th-ranked Tatum Evans. Yu won the first set, 6-4, but Evans came back to win the second, 6-1.

None other than the CLINCH QUEEN Ellie Coleman securing the takedown of the No. 4 Tar Heels ?????? pic.twitter.com/06crxt4Gbj
— Duke Women's Tennis (@DukeWTEN) March 27, 2025

NOTES

Duke notched its first win in Chapel Hill since April 6, 2011, and snapped a six-match losing streak against the Tar Heels on the road. It marked just the third win against UNC over the last 18 matches.
Emma Jackson and Liv Hovde won their sixth-consecutive match to move to 7-1 on the season and 5-1 in ACC action in doubles.
Jackson won her eighth-straight singles match to move to 7-0 in ACC play and 23-8 on the year.
With Jackson's win at No. 3 singles, she now owns 24 all-time wins at the slot, which moved her into a tie for sixth on the Duke record charts.
Ellie Coleman won her eighth-consecutive match to move to 6-0 in ACC play, 18-6 overall this season and 76-38 over her career in singles.
Coleman registered her 12th career match-clinching win and the third this season against top 10 opponents (Michigan, NC State and UNC).
Shavit Kimchi collected her sixth-straight win to move to 15-8 overall, 3-0 in the ACC and 32-20 over her career in singles.
Liv Hovde posted her second career ranked singles win and the highest of her short career defeating the No. 15 player in the nation. She is now 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth now owns 249 ACC wins over his career.

QUOTES

"It's been a while since we've won over here. I'm proud of our group. We lost the doubles [point]. I don't think we played very well. We just got off to some shaky starts. We were able to even it out a little bit, but the starts [hurt us]. We said after the doubles, you guys you have to believe in yourself and you have to trust yourself. I thought they did a really good job with that. I thought we handled ourselves well in singles. I thought we played really mature singles. We'd lose some points here and there, lose some games here and there, but we were really mature with how we handled ourselves emotionally. That's something to build on. And that's the other thing I told them – let's not make this the highlight of our season. Let's use this to push and keep getting better, because I think there's better tennis for us out there. We're looking forward to that." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Yeah, she's been getting better and better every day. I think it took her a little while first to get some match play and then used to the college tennis atmosphere.People don't understand it's different.People look at her pro ranking or look what she did in juniors and college tennis is a different animal. I think she's been more comfortable with it. She's handled herself really well, keeps getting better and wants to keep getting better, which is huge." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth on freshman Liv Hovde
"It feels great to come over here and beat UNC. So, that was really exciting for our team. Our team did really well today. I think we fought. We came out here and we made it like our home courts. And I'm really proud of us as a team." – Freshman Liv Hovde
"I felt like I just played my game really well and I didn't let anything get to me. I think every match I'm getting better. I'm excited for what the team is going to do further and also myself."– Freshman Liv Hovde

NEXT MATCH

Duke closes the week by hosting SMU on Sunday, March 30 at 11 a.m., at Ambler Tennis Stadium.

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

#GoDuke

#9 Duke 4, #4 North Carolina 2
March 26, 2025
Chewning Tennis Center * Chapel Hill, N.C.

Doubles
1. #20 Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton (UNC) def. #13 Ellie Coleman/Irina Balus (DU) 6-2
2. #9 Susanna Maltby/Carson Tanguilig (UNC) def. Shavit Kimchi/Ava Krug (DU) 6-4
3. Emma Jackson/Liv Hovde (DU) def. Tatum Evans/Lindsay Zink (UNC) 6-3

Singles
1. #9 Reese Brantmeier (UNC) def. #12 Irina Balus (DU) 6-3, 6-3
2. Liv Hovde (DU) def. #15 Thea Rabman (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
3. #25 Emma Jackson (DU) def. #43 Carson Tanguilig (UNC) 6-3, 6-0
4. #41 Eleana Yu (DU) vs. #48 Tatum Evans (UNC) 6-4, 1-6 unfinished
5. #66 Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. Alanis Hamilton (UNC) 6-4, 6-4
6. #125 Ellie Coleman (DU) def. Claire Hill (UNC) 6-4, 6-3
Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3,2*), Singles (3,1,2,5,6*)