No. 4 Blue Devils Register 4-3 Win at No. 16 California to Remain Undefeated in ACC Play

Friday, April 4

Berkeley, Calif.

4:30 PM

Duke University

California

Photo by: Bri Shaw, Duke Athletics

No. 4 Blue Devils Register 4-3 Win at No. 16 California to Remain Undefeated in ACC Play

4/4/2025 10:16:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BERKELEY, Calif. – The fourth-ranked Duke women's tennis team went on the road Friday at 16th-ranked California and registered a 4-3 victory at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley to remain undefeated in ACC action.

The Blue Devils registered the win in a way Blue Devil head coach Jamie Ashworth has never experienced in his 29 years as a head coach – winning by default. With the match tied, 3-3, Greta Greco Lucchina of California was overruled for a third time in her match against Shavit Kimchi. Kimchi was named winner by default to give Duke the 4-3 victory.

Duke moved to 17-2 and 9-0 in the ACC to move into sole possession of first place in the league, while the Golden Bears dropped to 11-5, 8-1. The 9-0 start marks only the fourth time in program history the Blue Devils have opened the season with nine-consecutive league wins.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Blue Devils came out in doubles and held leads early on all three courts – 1-0 on court one, 2-0 on court two and 4-0 on court three.
Duke's duo of Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug were impressive against Berta Passola and Naomi Xu on court two.Kimchi and Krug led 2-0 and then dropped a deuce point to cut into the lead, 2-1.The Blue Devils won the next game to go ahead, 3-1, but California battled back to get another game as well.Leading 3-2, Kimchi and Krug finished strong by winning the next three games to win, 6-3.
On court one, California's 11th-ranked duo of Jessica Alsola and Mao Mushika came back from dropping the first game against Duke's 17th-ranked Ellie Coleman and Irina Balus to win five in a row and take a 5-1 lead.The Blue Devils battled back to win two games in a row to cut into the lead, 5-3, but dropped a deuce point to fall, 6-3.
Duke's Emma Jackson and Liv Hovde entered the match against Greta Greco Lucchina and Lan Mi with a seven-match winning streak.Jackson and Hovde opened with a 4-0 lead, but the Golden Bears responded with a run of their own tying the score, 4-4.Trailing 40-30 in the next game, Duke won two points in a row to take a 5-4 lead and eventually won, 6-4.
With the Blue Devils leading, 1-0, after winning the doubles point, Duke won the first set on four of the six singles courts.California though did not quit.
After taking a 3-0 lead early, Duke's 20th-ranked Jackson dropped a deuce point to 52nd-ranked Mi on court three to cut into the lead, 3-1.Mi then won 11 out of the next 13 games to even the score to 1-1 with a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
The Blue Devils regained the lead as Duke's 84th-ranked Hovde collected a straight-set, 6-2, 6-4, win over 25th-ranked Mushika on court two.Hovde, who is from Daniel Island, S.C., trailed 2-1 in the first set, but went on a string where she won five games in a row to win the first set, 6-2. She jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the second, but Mushika came back to even the score, 4-4.Hovde though won the next two games to give Duke a 2-1 lead.
The Golden Bears put another point on the board on court two as California tied the score, 2-2, with a very tight battle from Duke's 14th-ranked Balus and Cal's 83rd-ranked Alsola.Balus led 3-2 in the first set, but trailed late, 5-4.After tying the score, 5-5, Alsola was able to win the first, 7-5.In the second, Balus only held the lead, 1-0, but was tied 5-5 late.After trailing, 6-5, Balus held serve to send the match to a tiebreaker, before Alsola won, 7-2, to win the match.
Duke once again regained the lead as 120th-ranked Coleman continued her stellar play with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) win on court six to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead.Coleman, who is from Midland, Mich., led 3-1 in the first set, but Xu came back to tie the score, 3-3.Coleman though won three games in a row to win the first set, 6-3.In the second, Coleman led 1-0, but Xu went on to take leads of 3-2, 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5.Coleman never quit and sent the match to a tiebreaker.With it even, 4-4, Coleman won three points to win the match, 7-4.
California tied the score, 3-3, as Passola came back from dropping the first set, 6-2, to Duke's 55th-ranked Yu to win back-to-back sets, 6-4, 6-3.
The match came down to court five with 77th-ranked Kimchi versus Lucchina of California.Kimchi won the first set, 6-3, but Lucchina came back and took the second, 6-4.In the third, Kimchi led, 4-2, but Lucchina battled back to go ahead 6-5.After Lucchina was overruled for a third time on a shot, Kimchi was named winner of the match by default to give Duke the 4-3 win.

NOTES

Duke won its 12th-straight match on the season.
Emma Jackson and Liv Hovde won their eighth-consecutive match to move to 9-1 on the season and 7-1 in ACC action in doubles.
Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug improved to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in ACC play in doubles action.
Jackson snapped a nine-match singles winning streak and dropped her first ACC match to fall to 8-1.
Liv Hovde registered her second top-25 win of the season to move to 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the ACC.
Ellie Coleman won her ninth-straight singles match to move to 19-6 overall, 7-0 in the ACC and 77-38 overall in her career. She now owns 24 ACC singles wins over her career to move into a tie for 21st in Duke history.

QUOTES

"We definitely had to gut it out. We had to gut out the doubles. At No. 3 doubles, we were up big – that was kind of the theme of the day -- we were up and then let them back in it. We just didn't do a great job of closing out when we had opportunities in both singles and doubles.Cal is too good to allow them to hang out and start to believe in themselves.You let a team like that just believe and you get yourself in trouble. In the end, we were able to gut it out." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Yeah, I mean it's a tough way to win a match to be honest with you. I told our girls, there shouldn't be a lot of celebrating. You have to deserve to win. Whether we deserve to win, I don't know, you feel for the girl from Cal, but the rules are the rules.The rules are in there for a reason." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Obviously, Stanford has been standard for women's tennis with its NCAA Championships and history.We just have to be ready to play. I told our team, it's the same situation with the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament. You have to come back, pick up the level of our play and be ready to give everything we have for the match tomorrow." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

NEXT MATCH

Duke will close the West Coast trip Saturday, April 5 at 5 p.m., at 25th-ranked Stanford.

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

#GoDuke

#4 Duke 4, #16 California 3
April 4, 2025
Hellman Tennis Complex * Berkeley, Calif.

Doubles
1. #11 Jessica Alsola/Mao Mushika (CAL) def. #17 Ellie Coleman/Irina Balus (DU) 6-3
2. Shavit Kimchi/Ava Krug (DU) def. Berta Passola/Naomi Xu (CAL) 6-2
3. Emma Jackson/Liv Hovde (DU) def. Greta Greco Lucchina/Lan Mi (CAL) 6-4

Singles
1. #84 Liv Hovde (DU) def. #25 Mao Mushika (CAL) 6-2, 6-4
2. #83 Jessica Alsola (CAL) def. #14 Irina Balus (DU) 7-5, 7-6 (7-2)
3. #52 Lan Mi (CAL) def. #20 Emma Jackson (DU) 6-4, 6-1
4. Berta Passola (CAL) def. #55 Eleana Yu (DU) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
5. #66 Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. Greta Greco Lucchina (CAL) 6-2, 4-6, 5-6 (default)
6. #120 Ellie Coleman (DU) def. Naomi Xu (CAL) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4)
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3*), Singles (3,1,2,6,4,5*)