No. 4 Duke Closes West Coast Trip with 4-3 Win Against No. 25 Stanford

Saturday, April 5

Stanford, Calif.

5:00 PM

Duke University

Stanford

Photo by: Bri Shaw, Duke Athletics

No. 4 Duke Closes West Coast Trip with 4-3 Win Against No. 25 Stanford

4/5/2025 9:50:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

STANFORD, Calif. – In its first ACC West Coast trip, the fourth-ranked Duke women's tennis team closed the weekend with a pair of ranked victories as the Blue Devils defeated 25th-ranked Stanford, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at Taube Pavilion in Stanford.

Duke sophomore Eleana Yu went up against her former team for the first time as well and collected the match-clinching victory to help the Blue Devils improve to 18-2 overall, 10-0 in the ACC and won their 13th-consecutive contest. Duke remains in sole possession of first place in the ACC heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Stanford dropped to 13-6 overall and 6-4 in the ACC.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Stanford came out and took the first doubles match on court two as 83rd-ranked Caroline Driscoll and Valencia Xu collected a 6-2 win over Duke's Shavit Kimchi and Ava Krug.
The Blue Devils came back on court one and received an impressive win by 17th-ranked Irina Balus and Ellie Coleman with a 6-2 victory over 23rd-ranked Valerie Glozman and Connie Ma.
The doubles point came down to court three with Duke's Liv Hovde and Emma Jackson against Stanford's Chidimma Okpara and Morgan Shaffer.After dropping the first game, Hovde and Jackson won three games in a row to take a 3-1 lead.The Cardinal took one game to cut into the lead, but the Blue Devils came back to win three-straight games to win the doubles point for Duke with a 6-2 victory.
In singles, both Duke and Stanford each won the first set on three courts.
The Blue Devils went ahead, 2-0, as 120th-ranked Coleman won her 10th-consecutive singles match with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Emma Sun on court six.
Stanford was able to get on the board next as 13th-ranked Ma posted a 6-1, 6-1 win versus Duke's 14th-ranked Balus on court one.
The Blue Devils took a 3-1 lead with a win on court five as 77th-ranked Kimchi collected a 6-2, 6-0 win over Shaffer.
Stanford responded by tying the match with wins on court two and three.
Duke's 84th-ranked Hovde jumped out to a 4-2 lead over eighth-ranked Glozman, but the Cardinal came back to win a 7-1 tiebreaker to take the first set, 7-6.Glozman finished their match with a 6-0 second set on court two.
Driscoll then registered a 6-4, 6-4 win over Duke's 20th-ranked Jackson to even the ledger, 3-3.
The match came down to 55th-ranked Yu of the Blue Devils and Okpara of the Cardinal on court five.Yu, who transferred to Duke over the summer from Stanford, went up against her former team for the first time as a Blue Devil.Yu, who is from Mason, Ohio, came out and never trailed in the first set taking a 5-2 lead and eventually won, 6-4.In the second set, Yu jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Okpara made a run of her own winning four games in a row to take a 4-3 lead.Yu came back to even the score, 4-4, but fell behind, 5-4.When the Blue Devils needed her the most, Yu came up big on the evening as she won the next two games to clinch the win 4-3 win for Duke.

NOTES

Duke won its 13th-straight match on the season.
Eleana Yu improved to 16-7 overall on the year, 4-3 in the ACC and totaled her fourth match-clinching win on the season.
Shavit Kimchi totaled her 17th singles win of the season, while improving to 5-1 in the ACC.
Emma Jackson and Liv Hovde won their ninth-consecutive match to move to 10-1 on the season and 8-1 in ACC action in doubles.
Ellie Coleman won her 10th-straight singles match to move to 20-6 overall, 8-0 in the ACC and 78-38 overall in her career. She now owns 25 ACC singles wins over her career to move into a tie for 19th in Duke history.
Irina Balus and Coleman improved to 19-10 overall and 6-4 in the ACC with their win in doubles. It marked their fourth ranked win of the season.

QUOTES

"At the end of the day, we are leaving here 2-0 and that's all that matters.We keep showing we can find different ways to win. You have to have some resiliency and handle yourself in adversity. And I thought we did a good job with that. I don't think we played as well as we're capable of playing. Heading into the end of the season here and the ACC Tournament, we have a lot of work to do.It's tough. Obviously, this is our first time with these conference matches out here [on the West Coast].We haven't played back-to-back days all year. So, obviously it is great to get out of here with two wins and another person stepping up -- two different people stepping up in 4-3 matches for us this week." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Today our No. 1 [doubles] team played really well, because those girls from Stanford are a good doubles team. Whether it's different double teams or different individuals, we are not relying on one or two people, which is great.We don't want to be in those situations. But, when we've been in those situations we've handled ourselves well." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"That was emotional for her being back at Stanford. We didn't really discuss it or talk about it with her. It came down to that. It was obviously great for her in that situation.I am proud of her to come through there. There's a lot of emotions having been on that team and transferred from there." --Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth on the win by Eleana Yu

NEXT MATCH

Duke closes the regular season next weekend by hosting Florida State Saturday, April 12 at 11 a.m., and Miami on Sunday, April 13 at 11 a.m.The match against the Hurricanes will mark senior day for Coleman and Jackson.

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, #25 Stanford 3
April 5, 2025
Taube Pavilion * Stanford, Calif.

Doubles
1. #17 Irina Balus/Ellie Coleman (DUKE) def. #23 Valerie Glozman/Connie Ma (STAN) 6-2
2. #83 Caroline Driscoll/Valencia Xu (STAN) def. Shavit Kimchi/Ava Krug (DUKE) 6-2
3. Liv Hovde/Emma Jackson (DUKE) def. Chidimma Okpara/Morgan Shaffer (STAN) 6-2

Singles
1. #13 Connie Ma (STAN) def. #14 Irina Balus (DUKE) 6-1, 6-1
2. #8 Valerie Glozman (STAN) def. #84 Liv Hovde (DUKE) 7-6 (7-1), 6-0
3. Caroline Driscoll (STAN) def. #20 Emma Jackson (DUKE) 6-4, 6-4
4. #55 Eleana Yu (DUKE) def. Chidimma Okpara (STAN) 6-4, 7-5
5. #77 Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) def. Morgan Shaffer (STAN) 6-2, 6-0
6. #120 Ellie Coleman (DUKE) def. Emma Sun (STAN) 6-0, 6-0
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3*), Singles (6,1,5,2,3,4*)