No. 8 Duke Advances to ITA National Team Indoors; Defeats South Carolina, 4-0

Saturday, January 24

Durham, N.C.

11:00 a.m.

Duke University

South Carolina

Women's Tennis Team - ITA Kickoff Weekend

Photo by: Chelsea Groves

No. 8 Duke Advances to ITA National Team Indoors; Defeats South Carolina, 4-0

1/24/2026 2:28:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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DURHAM, N.C. — For the 32nd-time in program history and the first time since 2023, the Duke women's tennis team advanced to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoors as the eighth-ranked Blue Devils defeated South Carolina, 4-0, Saturday inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Duke won its 13th-straight home match to improve to 3-0 on the season, while the Gamecocks dropped to 3-1.

How It Happened

In doubles action on court two, the Blue Devil tandem of Shavit Kimchi and Eleana Yu went up against the 44th-ranked tandem of Lauren Friedman and Helena Buchwald.Duke dropped a pair of deuce points to fall behind, 2-0. The Blue Devils broke the Gamecocks to cut into the lead, 2-1, but ended up dropping a 6-2 decision.
The Duke duo of Claire An and Liv Hovde fell behind on court one, 1-0, to Kaitlyn Carnicella and Taylor Goetz, but came back to even the score, 1-1.The Blue Devils took a 2-1 lead as An and Hovde broke South Carolina.It was a back-and-forth match as Duke broke the Gamecocks five total times.The Blue Devils broke South Carolina to take a 5-4 lead and An served the winning points to get Duke on the board, 6-4.
The doubles point came down to court three with Duke's Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman facing Jana Stojanova and Jayne Dunyon.The Blue Devils opened with a 2-0 lead and came back in the second game being down 40-15 to break the Gamecocks.South Carolina responded by winning two games in a row to even the score, 2-2.Balus and Schuman broke the Gamecocks to go ahead, 3-2.The next seven games went back and forth to send the match into a tiebreaker.After South Carolina won the first point, Duke won five in a row to go ahead, 5-1.Balus was impressive hitting her third ace over the last three games and impressive winners.Stojanova and Dunyon cut into the Duke lead, 5-3, but the Blue Devils were too strong clinching the doubles point with a 7-4 tiebreaking win.
In singles play, Duke won the first set on four of the six courts.
Schuman, a native of Menlo Park, California, took court two against Buchwald and was impressive.The Duke rookie won the first set, 6-1, taking three deuce points.In the second, Buchwald won the first game, but Schuman broke Buchwald to even the score, 1-1.After South Carolina went ahead, 2-1, Schuman went on a run where she won two games in a row to take a 3-2 advantage.Buchwald evened the score, 3-3, but Schuman went on to win three games in a row to win and give Duke a 2-0 lead.
After dropping the first three games in set one, Duke's Kimchi would go on to win 12 out of the next 15 games to defeat Goetz on court four with scores of 6-4 and 6-0.
One point away from clinching the victory, the Blue Devils were close to winning on courts one and three.
Duke was able to register the victory as 98th-ranked Hovde registered a 6-4, 6-4 win over 54th-ranked Carnicella on court one.Hovde, who hails from Daniel Island, South Carolina, trailed 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, but battled back to even the score, 4-4, on a key tiebreaker.She then won the next two games to earn her first collegiate win against a ranked opponent.

Notes

Duke's 22nd-ranked Irina Balus did not play singles due to being under the weather.
Both duos of Aspen Schuman and Balus along with Liv Hovde and Claire An moved to 2-0 on the season in doubles action.
Hovde clinched a win for Duke for the second time in her collegiate career.
Shavit Kimchi earned her 30th career dual match victory.
Head coach Jamie Ashworth moved to 10-0 all-time against South Carolina.
Duke moved to 29-4 all-time in the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
Over the last 10 years, Duke owns a 69-3 record inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Quotes

"It has been a battle for us this weekend for the last couple of years so I am proud of our group for being resilient for first of all playing without Irina [Balus], who has been one of the top players in the country, but not letting that affect what we do.First getting that doubles point – you have Irina who was able to play doubles out there with Aspen [Schuman] at the end there and they came up huge in the tiebreaker.We were able to carry a little momentum into singles.I thought we competed really well.Even the matches we got down in we didn't let South Carolina win a point.For people that aren't familiar with dual match format and dual match situation that is huge.We didn't get them any momentum to build on. We didn't let that scoreboard get to one or two and then I think it allowed the other girls on our team to play more freely."– Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"It is really exciting.I am so happy.I think this team deserves it and it is super special as a freshman to get this opportunity."-- Duke freshman Aspen Schuman

Next Match

Duke will host Kentucky (Jan. 30) and James Madison (Feb. 1) next weekend with match times slated for 5 p.m., and 12 p.m., respectively.

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

#GoDuke

#8 Duke 4, South Carolina 0
January 24, 2026
Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center * Durham, N.C.

Doubles