Duke Moves on at ITA Indoors with 4-0 Sweep of Host Illinois

Saturday, February 7

Urbana, Ill.

7:30 p.m.

Duke University

Illinois

Photo by: Matt Marton

Duke Moves on at ITA Indoors with 4-0 Sweep of Host Illinois

2/7/2026 11:25:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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URBANA, Illinois — The seventh-ranked Duke women's tennis team rebounded from a tough loss the day before by sweeping host Illinois Saturday, 4-0, in the consolation round of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoors at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.

The Blue Devils moved to 6-1 on the season, while Illinois dropped to 2-4. Duke won the doubles point and then collected singles victories by Eleana Yu, Aspen Schuman and Liv Hovde. Schuman moved to 2-0 in the 2026 ITA National Team Indoors.

How It Happened

Duke came out hot in doubles on court two as the Blue Devil tandem of Claire An and Eleana Yu never trailed en route to a 6-2 victory over McKenna Schaefbauer and Kimiko Cooper of Illinois.
After falling behind, 3-0, on court one, Duke's 19th-ranked Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi mounted an impressive comeback winning four games in a row to take a 4-3 lead. The Blue Devils went ahead, 5-4, but 59th-ranked Tess Bucher and Alice Xu won two games in a row to send the match to a tiebreaker. Duke was dominant in the tiebreaker winning 7-3 as the Blue Devils never trailed.
When the doubles point was clinched by Duke, Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman were tied, 5-5, with Ariel Madatali and Cara Mester on court three.
The Blue Devils carried the momentum with them from doubles as Duke won the first set on all six singles courts.
On court four, Yu never trailed against Xu taking the match, 6-3, 6-0, to give Duke a 2-0 advantage.
Trailing, 4-2, in the first set, Duke's Schuman won four games in a row against Madatali to win the first set, 6-4. Schuman, who is from Menlo Park, California, dropped the first game of the second set and then won six in a row to give Duke a 3-0 advantage.
Hovde, a sophomore from Daniel Island, South Carolina, jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first set against Cooper. Cooper wouldn't give up though as she came back to send the match into a tiebreaker. Duke lost the first point, but won seven out of the next nine points to take the first set, 7-6. Hovde never trailed in the second set as she clinched the Blue Devil victory with a 6-3 win in the second set.
Duke was leading on court four and five, respectively, with Kimchi and An, while Balus was tied with 67th-ranked Schaefbauer, 6-4, 4-6, when the match was clinched.

Notes

Duke's 29th-ranked Claire An and Eleana Yu rebounded from a setback the day before with a convincing win to move to 6-3 on the season in doubles.
Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi collected their second win in a row against a ranked opponent and second straight tiebreaking victory. The duo are now 9-3 on the year.
Yu collected her second dual match win of the season and fifth overall singles victory, while moving to 37-17 over her career.
Duke moved to 9-1 all-time against Illinois.
Aspen Schuman improved to 4-0 on the season and 2-0 in the 2026 ITA National Team Indoors.
With her singles win, Hovde improved to 15-15 over her Duke career and 9-8 on the season. She has won four out of her last five matches.

Quotes

"It was a good win for us after a tough match last night. It is important in this event to be on top of your game emotionally and I thought we did that. We need to do the same against a tough Texas team tomorrow." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will next face 18th-ranked Texas in the consolation round at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday, Feb. 8.

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

#GoDuke

#7 Duke 4, Illinois 0
February 7, 2026
Atkins Tennis Center * Urbana, Illinois

Doubles

#19 Liv Hovde/Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. #59 Tess Bucher/Alice Xu (Illinois) 7-6 (7-3)
#29 Claire An/Eleana Yu (DU) def. McKenna Schaefbauer/Kimiko Cooper (Illinois) 6-2
Irina Balus/Aspen Schuman (DU) vs. Ariel Madatali/Cara Mester (Illinois) 5-5 unfinished

Singles

#28 Irina Balus (DU) vs. #67 McKenna Schaefbauer (Illinois) 6-4, 4-6, unfinished
#120 Liv Hovde (DU) def. Kimiko Cooper (Illinois) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
Aspen Schuman (DU) def. Ariel Madatali (Illinois) 6-4, 6-1
Eleana Yu (DU) def. Alice Xu (Illinois) 6-3, 6-0
Shavit Kimchi (DU) vs. Tess Bucher (Illinois) 6-3, 4-4 unfinished
Claire An (DU) vs. Elizabeth Isyanova (Illinois) 6-4, 3-2 unfinished