No. 8 Blue Devils Open Doubleheader with 3-1 Win Over Hawkeyes

Monday, January 19

Durham, N.C.

9:30 a.m.

Duke University

Iowa

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 8 Blue Devils Open Doubleheader with 3-1 Win Over Hawkeyes

1/19/2026 4:42:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke women's tennis opened the 2026 dual match season with a 4-1 victory over Iowa Monday morning inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The Blue Devils claimed three singles wins after clinching the opening doubles point. It marked the first match of a Monday doubleheader. Duke moved to 1-0 on the season, with Iowa dropping to 1-1.

How It Happened

In tight doubles action, the Blue Devils were able to secure the point with wins on court No. 2 and No. 3.

Duke took the first doubles match on court No. 3 as Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman only dropped two games to win 6-2.

Iowa responded on court No. 1 defeating No. 14 ranked duo Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi to even the score.

The doubles point came down to court two as No. 32 Eleana Yu and Claire An fell behind to open the match, 0-3. The Blue Devils came back winning five games in a row to clinch the doubles point for Duke, 6-4.

Duke extended its lead on court six, where Ava Krug earned a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sally Xu to make it 2-0.

Iowa picked up its lone point on court two, as Mia Mack came back to tie the second set at 3-3, before winning three straight games to secure the win, 6-3, 6-3, against Hovde.
Duke moved within one point of clinching on court one as Balus, who is ranked No. 22 nationally, totaled a 6-4, 7-5, victory over Daianne Hayashida. Balus went on multiple eight-point win streaks, including one at the end to put off a tiebreaker and secure the win.
Yu clinched the Duke victory with a straight-set, 6-3, 6-4, win over Pia Kranholdt. Yu held strong to win the second set despite Kranholdt taking two late games in a row before Yu was able to close it out, 6-4, with a key break.

The matches on court three and five were unfinished when clinched. Freshman Aspen Schuman was leading 2-0 in the third set. Freshman Claire An was tied 2-2 in the third set.

Notes

Monday's match marked Duke's season opener and the first match of a double header at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Quotes

"It was the first match of the year for us. They played a match and so I was expecting a little nerves on our side which definitely showed up. We have a really young group out there. We'll keep getting better. We have a match under our belts. I expect us to keep building." – Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

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