Women’s Tennis Drops 4-2 Decision to No. 7 Virginia

Saturday, April 19

Cary, N.C.

10 a.m.

Duke University

Virginia (Semifinals)

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Women’s Tennis Drops 4-2 Decision to No. 7 Virginia

4/19/2025 2:39:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Ashworth Interview

CARY, N.C. – The top-seeded and fourth-ranked Duke women's tennis team dropped a 4-2 decision to fourth-seeded and seventh-ranked Virginia on Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC Championship to snap a 16-match winning streak at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary.

With the loss, the Blue Devils drop to 21-3 overall, while the Cavaliers move to 20-4 on the season. Duke received singles victories from sophomore Shavit Kimchi and senior Emma Jackson on the day, after dropping the doubles point.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Virginia came out at the start on fire on court one as the top-ranked tandem nationally, Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky totaled a 6-0 victory over Duke's 17th-ranked Irina Balus and Ellie Coleman.
After taking a 1-0 lead on court two, the Blue Devil duo of Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug went on to hold leads of 2-1 and 3-2.Virginia's 51st-ranked Martina Genis Salas and Annabelle Xu came back to win three games in a row to take a 5-3 lead.Kimchi served to cut into the lead, 5-4, but the Cavaliers ended up totaling a 6-4 victory to clinch the doubles point.
When the doubles point was clinched, Liv Hovde and Emma Jackson were leading Virginia's Margaret Navarro and Sara Ziodato, 5-3.
Virginia kept the momentum going in singles jumping out to leads on five of the six courts.
The Cavaliers went ahead, 2-0, as 33rd-ranked Chervinsky totaled a 6-0, 6-2 win on court two against 18th-ranked Balus.
No. 83 Kimchi was impressive on court five as she never trailed against Isabelle Lacy totaling a 6-2, 6-1 victory to cut into the Virginia lead.
On court one, 20th-ranked Ziodato registered a 6-2, 6-4 win over Duke's 60th-ranked Hovde to go ahead, 3-1.
Jackson, a senior from La Grange Park, Ill., kept her solid play going as she also never trailed against 35th-ranked Xu on court three and totaled a 7-5, 6-3 victory.In the first set, Jackson led 4-1 early, but Xu evened the ledger, 4-4.With the match tied, 5-5, Jackson pulled away winning two games in a row to take the first set, 7-5.In the second, Jackson led 2-1, but Xu evened the score, 2-2.Jackson won three games in a row, including a key deuce point to go ahead, 5-2.She eventually won, 6-3, to cut into the Virginia lead, 3-2.
It all came down to Duke needing wins on court four with Eleana Yu and court six with Coleman.
Yu was in a tight match with Genis Salas of Virginia that was back and forth the entire first set.Trailing 3-1 early, Yu came back to tie the score 3-3.Yu broke Genis Salas to even the score, 5-5, and then went ahead 6-5, but Genis Salas broke Yu to send it to a tiebreaker.Virginia took the tiebreaker, 7-3, to win the first set, 7-6.In the second, Genis Salas took a 2-0 lead, but Yu came back to even the ledger, 2-2.Genis Salas though won four out of the next five games to clinch the win, 4-2.
On court six, Coleman won the first set, 7-5, but dropped the second, 6-3, to Collard.When the match was clinched, Collard was leading, 2-1, in the third.

NOTES

Duke had won the doubles point in six-straight matches heading into Saturday's contest with Virginia.
Emma Jackson totaled her 26th singles win of the season to improve to 26-10 and 88-50 over her career.
Jackson improved to 4-2 in ACC Championship action over her career.
Duke had its 16-match winning streak snapped on the afternoon.
Of Duke's three losses on the season, two have come to Virginia.
Shavit Kimchi improved to 19-10 on the season in singles action.

QUOTES

"The slow start at No. 1 really hurt us.I thought we battled a little bit there at two to get ourselves back into it.They kind of took it to us in doubles.For the first time in a while, I felt like we were playing an away match.I felt like they were on top of us, people were on top of us.Virginia was honestly better emotionally than we were.You are not going to beat a team like that if you don't have that fight and emotion.If those other factors are there, then you have to do a better job of blocking it out.For the first time in a while, the toughness of our team came into question.I thought Virginia was better and tougher than we were today." -Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"We just have to get tougher.I told them after.When we are in those moments, you can't let self-doubt creep in – you cannot put your opponent on a pedestal or they are playing so well today.You cannot let those [thoughts] creep in.You play a point, you win the point, you lose a point, you get the next point.Tennis is a sport of gathering points.If you start doing those other things then the negativity starts to creep in – 'oh my god this girl cannot miss a ball starts to creep in.'Then it is really hard to stop the bleeding.I thought today, it just kind of kept going and we couldn't stop that.I don't think at any time we felt in a comfortable position in that match.Over the next two weeks, it is something we really have to work on." -Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

NEXT MATCH

Duke awaits the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday, April 28 at 5 p.m.

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

#GoDuke

#7 Virginia 4, #4 Duke 2
April 19, 2025
Cary Tennis Park * Cary, N.C.

Doubles
1. #1 Melodie Collard/Elaine Chervinsky (UVA) def. #17 Irina Balus/Ellie Coleman (DUKE) 6-0
2. #51 Martina Genis Salas/Annabelle Xu (UVA) def. Shavit Kimchi/Ava Krug (DUKE) 6-4
3. Liv Hovde/Emma Jackson (DUKE) vs. Margaret Navarro/Sara Ziodato (UVA) 5-3 unfinished

Singles
1. #20 Sara Ziodato (UVA) def. #60 Liv Hovde (DUKE) 6-2, 6-4
2. #33 Elaine Chervinsky (UVA) def. #18 Irina Balus (DUKE) 6-0, 6-2
3. #25 Emma Jackson (DUKE) def. #35 Annabelle Xu (UVA) 7-5, 6-3
4. Martina Genis Salas (UVA) def. #67 Eleana Yu (DUKE) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
5. #83 Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) def. Isabelle Lacy (UVA) 6-2, 6-1
6. #115 Ellie Coleman (DUKE) vs. Melodie Collard (UVA) 7-5, 3-6, 1-2 unfinished
Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2*), Singles (2,5,1,3,4*)