No. 15 Seeded Duke Sweeps VCU, 4-0, to Open NCAA Tournament

Friday, May 1

Durham, N.C.

4 p.m.

Duke University

VCU

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 15 Seeded Duke Sweeps VCU, 4-0, to Open NCAA Tournament

5/1/2026 7:52:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

DURHAM, N.C. — The 15th-seeded Duke women's tennis team opened action in the 2026 NCAA Tournament with a 4-0 sweep of VCU Friday afternoon at Amber Tennis Stadium in Durham.

The Blue Devils moved to 27-0 all-time in NCAA Tournament first round matches and improved to 19-7 on the year. VCU concluded its season with a 14-11 ledger.

How It Happened

The Blue Devils came out and won the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead in the contest.
After dropping two out of the first three games on court three, Duke's Liv Hovde and Aspen Schuman regrouped and went on to collect a 6-4 victory over Sara Alba and Viktoria Lackova.
With the score tied, 1-1, on court two, the Blue Devil duo of Claire An and Eleana Yu won five games in a row to clinch the doubles point for Duke with a 6-1 win over Sofia Thorne and Andrea Magallanes.
When the doubles point was clinched, Duke's 50th-ranked Shavit Kimchi and Irina Balus were leading VCU's Isabel Andrade and Mariam Ibrahim, 5-2, on court one.
In singles play, Duke came out and won the first set on five of the six courts.
Senior Katie Codd collected an NCAA Tournament first round victory for the second year in a row as she totaled a 6-0, 6-1 win on court six against Elicia Kim to give Duke a 2-0 lead.
The Blue Devils then featured four different courts that were close to finishing – No. 1, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5.
Kimchi made it 3-0 in favor of Duke as she then totaled a 6-1, 6-3 win versus Lackova on court four.
Balus, who is ranked No. 13 nationally, clinched the victory for Duke with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Thorne on court one. In the first set, Balus went ahead, 1-0, but Thorne came back to take a 2-1 lead. Balus flipped the match and only dropped three games the rest of the way for the win.
When the match was clinched, An was ahead, 6-1, 5-4, versus Ibrahim and Yu was leading Magallanes, 6-3, 5-3, on courts three and five, respectively.
Schuman was trailing, 4-6, 0-4, on court two against Andrade.

Notes

Liv Hovde and Aspen Schuman improved to 9-1 on the season in doubles play.
Duke's Eleana Yu and Claire An moved to 12-8 on the year in doubles.
Duke improved to 38-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament action in Durham over the history of the program.
The Blue Devils are now 27-0 in NCAA Tournament first round matches.
Irina Balus totaled her sixth singles win in a row and improved to 21-8 overall on the year. Balus totaled her third match-clinching win of the season.
Shavit Kimchi won her fourth consecutive singles match and is now 12-11 on the season. The win marked her 50th career singles win. Kimchi is 3-1 over her career in the NCAA Tournament.
With her singles victory, Katie Codd improved to 8-4 this year and 43-30 over her career.

Quotes

"She [Shavit Kimchi] has been moving well. She's been really committed to what she needs to do to play well in practice and on the court in these matches. Obviously, it was great for Katie [Codd] to get a win here this weekend and be able to finish that match. Eleana [Yu] was about to win. Overall, just a clean match and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and have a good effort all around." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Playing an SEC team that kind of fears nobody. They've been all over the country and played the best teams in the country. Last time we played, they took it to us pretty good. We are excited to have that opportunity and play that match here tomorrow in front of, hopefully, a good crowd. It should be a good match."— Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth on playing Tennessee Saturday
"It feels great. I mean, it's the NCAA [Tournament]. We've worked so hard to be here and obviously we have a tough match tomorrow. It was nice to get this done pretty quickly." -- Duke sophomore Irina Balus
"First, I really had to work on my footwork and get stronger. I feel like to improve defense, you just need to be more dynamic, more flexible. I improved that and I think automatically that just translates on the court. I feel like also I worked on my anticipation a lot, so that helps too." -- Duke sophomore Irina Balus on how she has improved her defense

Up Next

Duke will next face 19th-ranked Tennessee Saturday, May 2 at 4 p.m., in the NCAA Tournament second round in Durham.

#15 Duke 4, VCU 0
May 1, 2026
Ambler Tennis Stadium * Durham, N.C.

Doubles

#50 Shavit Kimchi/Irina Balus (DU) vs. Isabel Andrade/Mariam Ibrahim (VCU) 5-2, unfinished
Claire An/Eleana Yu (DU) def. Sofia Thorne/Andrea Magallanes (VCU) 6-1
Liv Hovde/Aspen Schuman (DU) def. Sara Alba/Viktoria Lackova (VCU) 6-4