Louisville (9-4, 1-4 ACC) at #24 Duke (9-3, 3-0 ACC)
Friday, March 13 * 5 p.m.
Durham, N.C. * Ambler Tennis Stadium
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#55 Notre Dame 12-4, 2-3 ACC) at #24 Duke (9-3, 3-0 ACC)
Sunday, March 15 * 12 p.m.
Durham, N.C. * Ambler Tennis Stadium
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DURHAM, N.C. – The 24th-ranked Duke women's tennis team returns home for a pair of ACC matches this week as the Blue Devils host Louisville and Notre Dame Friday, March 13 and Sunday, March 15, respectively.
Duke (9-3, 3-0 ACC) and Louisville (9-4, 1-4 ACC) will play at 5 p.m., Friday and the Blue Devils and Irish (12-4, 2-3) will compete Sunday at 12 p.m. The Blue Devils enter the weekend with a 17-match home winning streak. Both contests are slated to be contested at Ambler Tennis Stadium. Admission is free and parking will be available in the Blue Zone lot adjacent to the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
The Series with Louisville
Duke and Louisville will meet for the 12th time in program history with the Blue Devils leading the series, 11-0. In matches played in Durham, Duke owns a 6-0 ledger. Head coach
Jamie Ashworth owns an 11-0 record against the Cardinals.
Scouting Louisville
Louisville enters the contest with a 9-4 overall and 1-4 ACC mark. The Cardinals defeated Middle Tennessee State, 6-1, Wednesday. In ACC play, since defeating Florida State, 4-3, on Feb. 20, Louisville has dropped three matches in a row against Georgia Tech, Miami and Clemson.
The Series with Notre Dame
Duke and Notre Dame will meet for the 31st time in program history with the Blue Devils leading the series, 26-4. In matches played in Durham, Duke owns a 9-0 ledger. The two teams didn't face each other in 2025 and Notre Dame won the previous contest, 4-2, in South Bend, Indiana on April 12, 2024. Head coach
Jamie Ashworth owns a 22-4 record against Notre Dame.
Scouting Notre Dame
Notre Dame enters the weekend with a 12-4 overall and 2-3 ACC mark. The Irish face North Carolina Friday, March 13 before heading to Durham on Sunday. In ACC play, Notre Dame defeated Florida State and Louisville, while dropping matches to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Miami. The Irish are currently ranked No. 55 as a team.
Notre Dame features Bianca Molnar (#75) ranked in singles, while Molnar and Bojana Pozder are No. 73 in doubles.
What is Next
Duke will hit the road for three road matches in a row. The Blue Devils start the action at Ohio State Sunday, March 22 at 12 p.m.
ITA Rankings
Duke is currently No. 24 nationally in the ITA rankings as a team.
Head coach
Jamie Ashworth has guided Duke to 21 top-10 preseason rankings in his 30 seasons as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Duke has been in the preseason top-16 nationally in each of the last 30 years under Ashworth.
In singles play,
Irinia Balus (#13),
Eleana Yu (#101),
Aspen Schuman (#107) and
Liv Hovde (#114) are ranked. Duke features three doubles teams as well with
Shavit Kimchi/Hovde (#13), Hovde/Balus (#33) and
Eleana Yu/
Claire An (#61).
Approaching 1,000 Wins as a Program
Duke is only three wins away from reaching 1,000 victories as a program. The Blue Devils currently feature a 997-305 ledger over the 49 years of the program. In NCAA history, only three programs have reached 1,000 wins – Stanford, Florida and Georgia. Duke will become the fourth.
Various Duke Notes
- Shavit Kimchi owns 12 match-clinching wins in her career which ranks tied for 12th on Duke's all-time charts (Stats only available from 2005-06 to present)
- Irina Balus (13), Liv Hovde (10) and Claire An (10) lead Duke with double-digit singles wins on the season.
- Freshman Claire An recently registered both match-clinching wins against Boston College and Syracuse. They were the first two match-clinching victories of her career.
- In just two seasons, Liv Hovde has totaled a 32-8 overall, 23-6 dual match and 12-2 ACC record in doubles play.
- Freshman Aspen Schuman has opened her collegiate career with a 7-2 overall and 3-0 ACC ledger in singles action. In doubles play, Schuman is 5-3 overall and 2-1 in ACC play.
- Duke sophomore Irina Balus registered a win over Texas' second-ranked Carmen Andreea Herea, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4, in the National Team Indoors. It marked the highest ranked win of her collegiate career.
- Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi are ranked No. 13 nationally in doubles, which is their second-highest ranking of the season.
Balus with Impressive Wins
Irina Balus is 8-1 this season in dual match action and 13-6 overall. She owns six wins against nationally-ranked opponents, including wins against No. 2 and No. 12 players nationally. She has won four matches in a row and eight out of the last nine. Balus' win against No. 2 Carmen Andreea Herea of Texas marked just the 20th win in program history over a player ranked No. 2 or higher nationally.
Freshmen Impact
Claire An and
Aspen Schuman have combined to open their collegiate careers with a 13-3 dual match record and 17-6 overall ledger. They are 6-0 in ACC action.
Home Court Advantage
Since the 2000-01 season, the Blue Devils have posted an 180-27 combined home record between Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center (49-10) and Ambler Tennis Stadium (131-17). The program has also gone 72-3 at Sheffield over the past 11 years and recorded 14 undefeated outdoor seasons, most recently a 9-0 mark at Ambler in 2024-25.
Duke is riding a 17-match home winning streak at home dating back to last season.
Doubles Team Nets Honor
The Duke tandem of
Liv Hovde and
Shavit Kimchi were named the ACC Doubles Team of the Week on Feb. 10, following the National Team Indoors.
Hovde and Kimchi collected a 2-1 record at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoors at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Illinois. The duo registered their first two ranked wins as the Blue Devils defeated Ohio State's 13th-ranked Hephzibah Oluwadare and Teah Chavez, 7-6 (7-2), and also knocked off 59th-ranked Tess Bucher and Alice Xu, 7-6 (7-3).
So far this season, Duke's duo has collected a 10-4 record. Hovde and Kimchi also advanced to the round of 16 at the NCAA Doubles Championship in the fall.
Balus Earns PNC Achievers Award
Duke women's tennis sophomore
Irina Balus and fencing junior Dayaal Singh were named PNC Achievers of the Year for the 2024-25 campaign and were recognized at the Duke men's basketball game Feb. 14.
Since arriving on campus, Balus has made an immediate impact on the Duke women's tennis team. She is coming off a 2025 campaign where she earned ITA All-America honors, received as high as a No. 8 national ranking in singles and No. 8 in doubles and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship. Balus, a native of Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, helped lead Duke to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Team Championship this past May and owns 27 wins over her first two seasons with the Blue Devils.
Blue Devils Add Aspen Schuman for Dual Match Action
In November, Duke head coach
Jamie Ashworth announced the signing of
Aspen Schuman. A native of Menlo Park, California, Schuman joined the Blue Devils in January.
Schuman has an Intercollegiate Tennis Federation (ITF) career high ranking of No. 31 and a Women's Tennis Association (WTA) career-best ranking of No. 931. In the Tennis Recruiting Network rankings, Schuman is listed No. 4 nationally and she has been listed as high as No. 1 in the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Girls' 18s national rankings. A six-time Junior Grand Slam main draw competitor, Schuman has won five ITF junior singles titles and is a two-time ITF W15 Tournament finalist.
Balus Earns All-America Accolades Once Again
For the second year in a row, Duke sophomore
Irina Balus has earned All-America honors as she advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship in the fall.
Balus became just the fourth Blue Devil to earn All-America accolades in each of their first two seasons in Durham – Amanda Johnson (2001, 2002), Kelly McCain (2002, 2023) and Vanessa Webb (1996, 1997).
Balus won five out of her final seven matches to conclude the fall and owns a career singles mark of 24-16.
The Head Coach
Head coach
Jamie Ashworth is in his 30th season with the Blue Devils and owns an impressive 645-165 ledger. In 2024, Ashworth registered his 600th victory on Jan. 20 in a 4-2 win over Illinois. He accomplished this mark in only 747 matches, becoming the quickest coach to 600 wins.
Quickest to 600 Wins – 747 matches by
Jamie Ashworth (Duke), 749 by Jeff Wallace (Georgia), 779 by Brian Kalbas (William & Mary/North Carolina), and 785 by Lin Loring (UC Santa Barbara/Indiana).
Ashworth became the seventh NCAA Division I coach to reach the 600-win ledger – Lin Loring (846), Jeff Wallace (818), Brian Kalbas (797), Jay Louderback (703), Geoff MacDonald (631), Gualberto Escudero (631) and
Jamie Ashworth (636) (wins entering the 2026 season).
Among the winningest coaches of all time, Ashworth ranks 10th with a 79.9 winning percentage, sixth with 645 wins, third for winningest active coaches by percentage (79.9) and second for winningest active coaches by victories (645).
Big Sets for Little Hearts
The Duke men's and women's tennis programs announced a partnership with the Duke Children's Hospital Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center called Big Sets for Little Hearts in the fall of 2024.
Big Sets for Little Hearts pledges will be made based on the number of sets won by the men's and women's tennis programs.
If you are interested in supporting Blue Devil tennis' partnership with Duke Children's, you can pledge for each set won during the season or make a one-time donation. Pledges start at $0.10, $0.50, $1.00 and $2.50. Based on last year's results, the smallest pledged donation would be equal to $64.70. For more information or to donate, click
here.
The Duke Children's Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center is the No. 2 ranked pediatric cardiology and heart surgery program in the United States for newborns and children with congenital and acquired heart disease. The Duke Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center strives to improve their patients' outcomes and the quality of their lives.
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