Balus Nets Huge Win; Duke Falls to Texas, 4-3, at National Team Indoors

Sunday, February 8

Urbana, Ill.

1:00 p.m.

Duke University

Texas

Photo by: Matt Marton

Balus Nets Huge Win; Duke Falls to Texas, 4-3, at National Team Indoors

2/8/2026 9:47:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

URBANA, Illinois — Duke women's tennis sophomore Irina Balus collected a victory against the No. 2 ranked singles player nationally Sunday, but the seventh-ranked Blue Devils dropped a tight match, 4-3, to 18th-ranked Texas to conclude action at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoors contested at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.

Balus, who is ranked No. 28 nationally, defeated No. 2 ranked Carmen Andreea Herea, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4, to give the two-time All-America selection her highest ranked win of her short career. The Blue Devils moved to 6-2 on the season, while the Longhorns improved to 4-2.

How It Happened

In doubles action, Texas was able to get on the board first as Elizabeth Ionescu and Carmen Andreea Herea totaled a 6-3 victory on court two over Duke's 19th-ranked Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi. Hovde and Kimchi won the first game, but then Texas won four in a row to go ahead, 4-1. The Blue Devils came back and won two in a row to cut into the lead, 4-3, but the Longhorns closed the match winning, 6-3.
On court two, the Blue Devil 29th-ranked tandem of Claire An and Eleana Yu won the first five games against Christasha McNeil and Salma Drugdova. The Texas duo won a couple games before Duke closed the match, 6-3.
The doubles point came down to court three with Duke's Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman up against Anastasia Abbagnato and Mathilde Ngijol-Carré. The match was back and forth early, before Texas took hold of the lead, 4-2. Balus and Schuman came back to go ahead, 5-4, and eventually won a tiebreaker, 7-2, to clinch the doubles point for Duke.
After dropping the doubles point, Texas came out in singles and took four out of the six first sets.
Duke's Yu dropped the first game on court four to McNeil, but responded by winning five games in a row. McNeil came back and won four straight games to even the score, 5-5. Yu, a native of Marion, Ohio, responded by winning the final two games to take the first set, 7-5. In the second set, Yu never trailed as she won the set, 6-3, to put Duke ahead, 2-0.
On court three, Eszter Meri opened the match with a 6-3 victory in the first set against Duke's Schuman. The Blue Devil rookie came back to win the second, 6-4, but dropped the third set, 6-0, to give Texas a point, 2-1.
Texas evened the score, 2-2, as Ionescu totaled a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win on court six against Duke's An.
The Longhorns then took their first lead of the contest as 63rd-ranked Abbagnato posted a 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3 win over Duke's 120th-ranked Hovde on court two.
The fans were treated to a top-30 matchup on court one with Duke's 28th-ranked Balus going up against second-ranked Carmen Andreea Herea of Texas. Balus opened the first set with a 3-1 lead, but Herea won four games a row to take a 4-3 lead. Herea then collected leads of 5-4 and 6-5, but Balus came back to even the ledger both times and sent the match to a tiebreaker. Balus never trailed in the tiebreaker to win the first set, 7-6, with a 7-3 score. In the second set, Balus led 1-0 and 3-2 early, but Herea was able to take the set, 6-4. Herea opened the third with a 2-0 advantage, but Balus came back to take a 4-3 lead. With the match tied, 4-4, Balus won two games in a row to collect the ranked win and even the team score, 3-3.
The match came down to court five with Duke's Kimchi against Texas' Mansfield. Kimchi led 4-3 and 6-5 late, but Mansfield sent the set into a tiebreaker. Mansfield took the early lead, but Kimchi came back and with the tiebreaker tied, 5-5, Mansfield won the next two points to take the first set, 7-6. Kimchi never trailed in the second winning, 6-4, and kept the momentum in the third taking a 4-2 lead. Mansfield came back again evening the score, 4-4, and then took a 5-4 lead. Kimchi held serve with a pair of aces to tie the score, 5-5. Mansfield then took the next two games to clinch the victory for Texas with a 7-5 win in the third set.

Notes

Freshman Aspen Schuman dropped her first dual match of the season and is now 4-1.
Irina Balus is now 10-6 on the season and 5-1 in dual matches. She is 7-2 over her last 10 matches.
Eleana Yu collected her second win of the weekend at the National Team Indoors and is now 6-6 on the year.
Claire An and Yu are now 6-3 in doubles action and 3-1 in dual match play.
Balus and Schuman moved to 3-1 in doubles play together.

Quotes

"Definitely a heartbreaker to lose, but hopefully it is a good learning moment for us. In these matches, you have to be extremely physical and Texas did a better job as the matches got into third sets with their legs than we did. If we want to win matches like this against quality opponents like we had today, we need to get physically tougher. This is on us as coaches and our staff to make sure we are able to compete at a high level whether it is the first day of an event or the last." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will be off for a week before kicking off ACC action against Boston College (Feb. 20) and Syracuse (Feb. 22) at home in Durham.

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

#GoDuke

#18 Texas 4, #7 Duke 3
February 8, 2026
Atkins Tennis Center * Urbana, Illinois

Doubles

Elizabeth Ionescu/Carmen Herea (TEX) def. #19 Liv Hovde/Shavit Kimchi (DU) 6-3
#29 Claire An/Eleana Yu (DU) def. Christasha McNeil/Salma Drugdova (TEX) 6-3
Irina Balus/Aspen Schuman (DU) def. Anastasia Abbagnato/Mathilde Ngijol-Carré (TEX) 7-6 (7-2)