No. 7 Duke Falls, 4-2, to No. 10 Ohio State to Open ITA National Team Indoors

Friday, February 6

Urbana, Ill.

7:30 p.m.

Duke University

Ohio State

Photo by: Matt Marton

No. 7 Duke Falls, 4-2, to No. 10 Ohio State to Open ITA National Team Indoors

2/6/2026 11:43:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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URBANA, Illinois — A pair of Duke women's tennis freshmen registered singles wins, but the seventh-ranked Blue Devils dropped their opening match at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoors Friday evening by a 4-2 ledger to 10th-ranked Ohio State inside the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.

Duke rookies Aspen Schuman and Claire An collected singles wins in their first appearance at the ITA National Team Indoors, after the Blue Devils lost a close doubles point. The Blue Devils (5-1) dropped their first match of the season, while the Buckeyes moved to 3-0.

How It Happened

In doubles action, Ohio State's 55th-ranked Flora Johnson and Luciana Perry came out and registered a 6-0 victory on court two against Duke's Claire An and Eleana Yu.
Duke's Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi faced their third ranked opponent of the season on court one as the Blue Devils went up against 13th-ranked Hephzibah Oluwadare and Teah Chavez.Ohio State took the early lead, 2-1, but the Blue Devils kept battling back to even the score.It ended up moving to a tiebreaker where Duke trailed 1-0, but won three in a row to go ahead, 3-1, and never trailed again en route to a 7-2 victory.
The doubles point came down to court three with Duke's Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman against Sophia Cisse-Inatiev and Audrey Spencer.OSU took a 2-1 lead early, but Duke came back to win three games in a row to go ahead, 4-2.The Buckeyes responded by winning five out of the next six games to clinch the doubles point with a 7-5 win.
Ohio State came out with the momentum in singles and took advantage of it winning four of the six first sets.
An, a freshman from Boca Raton, Florida, trailed, 2-1, early to Johnson, but responded by winning five out of the next six games to take the first set, 6-3, on court six.She then won the second set, 6-2, to even the team score, 1-1.
Ohio State added two more points from courts one and two and took a 3-1 lead.
On court one, Duke's 28th-ranked Balus faced third-ranked Perry.Perry jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Balus battled back to win two in a row.Trailing, 5-2, Balus once again won two games, but eventually dropped the first set, 6-4.The Blue Devil sophomore won the second, 6-1, but fell behind, 5-1, in the third and eventually dropped the set, 6-3.
Hovde, who is ranked No. 120 nationally, faced 13th-ranked Chavez.In the first set, Chavez cruised to a 6-0 win, but Hovde responded by winning the second, 6-2.Down 5-2 in the third, Hovde tried to battle back but lost, 6-4.
On court three, Schuman logged a 6-2 win in the first set against 52nd-ranked Nao Nishino, but fell, 6-2, in the second set.In her first three-set match as a Blue Devil, Schuman came back from a 1-0 deficit in the third to go ahead, 3-1.Nishino responded by winning three games in a row to take a 4-3 lead.Schuman, a product of Menlo Park, California, finished strong by winning the final three games to put a second point on the board for Duke.
Two courts remained in action with Ohio State leading, 3-2 – court four with Duke's Yu against Spencer and court five with Kimchi versus Oluwadare.
Even, 3-3, in the first set, Spencer pulled away to win, 6-3, but Yu came back to win the second, 6-4.Spencer was dominant in the third clinching the Buckeye win, 4-2, with a 6-0 victory in the third.
When the match was clinched, Duke's Kimchi was even on court five with a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 3-3 ledger.

Notes

The win for Duke's doubles tandem of Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi was their highest ranked victory of their career.
Ohio State won its third match in a row against Duke, including four out of the last five as well.
Aspen Schuman is now 3-0 for the Blue Devils since arriving in Durham in January. She notched her first career ranked win on the night.
Freshman Claire An won her fourth singles match in a row to improve to 6-3 on the season.She is 2-0 in dual match play.
Duke is now 59-41 all-time in the National Team Indoors.

Quotes

"I thought we competed better than we have in any match this spring and this gives us something to build on tomorrow. Ohio State was just a little better than us on big points, stepping up, playing inside the court when they needed to."-- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will next face host Illinois Saturday, Feb. 7 in the consolation round at 7:30 p.m. (ET).

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

#GoDuke

#10 Ohio State 4, #7 Duke 2
February 6, 2026
Atkins Tennis Center * Urbana, Illinois

Doubles

Liv Hovde/Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. #13 Hephzibah Oluwadare/Teah Chavez (OSU) 7-6 (7-2)
#55 Flora Johnson/Luciana Perry (OSU) def. Claire An/Eleana Yu (DU) 6-0
Sophia Cisse-Inatiev/Audrey Spencer (OSU) def. Irina Balus/Aspen Schuman (DU) 7-5