DURHAM – Riding a three-match winning streak to open the season, the 15th-ranked Duke women’s tennis team (3-0) is set to host Illinois (2-0) on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 6 p.m., inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
Match Information
All home Duke tennis matches are free admission.
General public parking will be available in the blue zone, with the easiest entrance being at the south end of the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. ADA parking is available in the Card Lot with an accessible entrance available on the north end of the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. Guests with disabilities will be able to use the elevator indoors to go up to the seating level. The newly renovated addition to the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center will be accessible via a mulched path on the northwest side of the building. Guests will then be able to use the elevator to go to the seating level.
Nearing 600 Wins
Head coach Jamie Ashworth owns 599 victories, which ranks fourth-nationally among active coaches. If he were to reach the milestone soon, Ashworth would be the quickest NCAA Division I coach to reach 600 wins. He has 599 victories in 746 matches.
Quickest to 600 Wins – 749 by Jeff Wallace (Georgia), 779 by Brian Kalbas (William & Mary/North Carolina) and 785 by Lin Loring (UC Santa Barbara/Indiana).
Ashworth will become the seventh NCAA Division I coach to reach the 600-win ledger – Loring (846), Wallace (818), Kalbas (748), Jay Louderback (703), Geoff MacDonald (631) and Gualberto Escudero (Pepperdine).
The Series with Illinois
The Blue Devils and the Fighting Illini will meet for the ninth time in school history and for the first time since 2020. Duke is 7-1 all-time in the series and has won the last three matches. The Blue Devils are 4-0 in matches played in Durham.
Scouting Illinois
The Illini are coming off an 18-10 season with an 8-3 Big Ten record in 2022-23. Illinois returns six of its eight players from last season, including fifth-year senior Josie Frazier and senior Kate Duong. Additionally, Megan Heuser, Kasia Treiber, and Kida Ferrari return for their junior campaigns and Violeta Martinez begins her sophomore dual season. Illinois is led by Evan Clark who enters his ninth season as head coach of the Fighting Illini. Illinois currently holds a 2-0 record in 2024 and will face Charlotte on Friday, Jan. 19 prior to facing the Blue Devils.
Duke Versus the Big Ten
The Blue Devils are 126-22 all-time versus the Big Ten Conference—Wisconsin (7-0), Purdue (3-0), Indiana (20-9), Illinois (7-1), Northwestern (22-5), Nebraska (2-0), Minnesota (2-0), Iowa (2-0), Maryland (39-3), Ohio State (8-1), Michigan (11-3), Michigan State (2-0), Rutgers (1-0). Duke is currently on a 5-match win streak versus Big Ten opponents.
What is Next?
Duke hosts the ITA Kickoff Weekend Jan. 26-27 with the Blue Devils, Princeton, Auburn and Denver seeing action. The Blue Devils host Princeton on Jan. 26 at 3 p.m., followed by Auburn against Denver at 6:30 p.m. The two winning teams will play at 4 p.m., on Jan. 27 and then the consolation match will be played at 7 p.m. The winner of the championship match will advance to the National Team Indoors Feb. 9-12.
Playing at Home
Inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center, the Blue Devils feature a 17-match winning streak dating back to the 2021-22 campaign. Since the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center opened in the 2008-09 season, Duke has registered an impressive 100-3 ledger.
The Blue Devils feature six straight matches to open the season at home in Durham, before hitting the road for the month of February.
ACC Doubles Team of the Week
The Duke’s doubles duo of Brianna Shvets and Iuliia Bryzgalova were tabbed the ACC Women’s Tennis Doubles Team of the Week on Tuesday as announced by the league office.
The Blue Devil tandem helped lead 15th-ranked Duke to a 5-2 victory over SMU inside the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center on Jan. 13 in the season opener. It marked the 17th straight season-opening win in Durham and improved to 24-1 all-time in home season openers. Duke also collected its 15th-consecutive victory in Sheffield.
In doubles action on court three, Shvets and Bryzgalova were in a nailbiter against SMU’s Hadley Doyle and Drew Morris. After the Mustangs won the first game, Shvets and Bryzgalova came back to win three straight to take a 3-1 advantage. Doyle and Morris responded by winning four consecutive games to go ahead 5-3. Shvets and Bryzgalova fought off match points, while winning a key deuce point to cut the SMU lead to 5-4. The Blue Devils evened the score, 5-5, but once again fell behind, 6-5. Shvets and Bryzgalova continued battling and set the match into a tiebreaker, before winning 7-3.
The victory for Duke on court three clinched the much-needed doubles point for the Blue Devils and helped propel them to a season-opening win. Shvets and Bryzgalova, who are graduate students at the Fuqua School of Business, competed for the first time as a doubles team in a dual match.
In the Rankings
Duke was preseason ranked No. 15 nationally in the preseason Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings. The Blue Devils have been listed in the top-16 of the preseason ITA poll each of the last 24 seasons.
In the latest ITA singles rankings, Katie Codd is No. 52, Shavit Kimchi is No. 65, Ellie Coleman is No. 74 and Brianna Shvets is No. 78.
A Look at the Blue Devils
Duke returns six letterwinners, including five starters from a season ago, as head coach Jamie Ashworth enters his 29th season with the Blue Devils.
Graduate students Brianna Shvets and Iuliia Bryzgalova, along with senior Karolina Berankova, junior Emma Jackson and junior Ellie Coleman all started matches in 2023. Sophomore Katie Codd and freshman Shavit Kimchi turned in solid fall seasons and are expected to provide a lift for the Blue Devils this spring.
The Blue Devils have to replace some key personnel from a season ago, after losing three of their top performers from 2023 – Chloe Beck, Cameron Morra and Georgia Drummy. The trio combined to produce a 66-27 ledger last year.
Kimchi Has Impressive Start
In the fall, freshman Shavit Kimchi had an impressive start logging three singles wins in limited action. She became the first Blue Devil to open her collegiate career with a pair of top-30 ranked wins since Beatrice Capra accomplished it in 2010-11. Over the last 17 years, only Kimchi and Capra registered this feat.
Kimchi, who hails from Sdey Hemed, Israel, tallied wins over 27th-ranked Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State and 17th-ranked Elza Tomase of Tennessee at the Debbie Southern Furman Fall Classic to open her Duke career. All three wins by Kimchi in the fall were against players ranked in the top-29 nationally.
Match-Clinching Points
Five current Blue Devils have clinched match wins for Duke over their career — Emma Jackson (11), Ellie Coleman (9), Brianna Shvets (3), Shavit Kimchi (1) and Iuliia Bryzgalova (1). Shvets owns nine match-clinching wins over her career with Duke and Princeton, while Bryzgalova owns six with both Penn and Duke.
Noting the Blue Devils
- After seeing limited action as a freshman, Katie Codd had an impressive fall totaling a 7-4 record, including winners of five out of her final six matches.She tallied a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Vanderbilt’s Celia Belle Mohr for the highest ranked victory of her career. With her three wins to open the dual match season, Codd is now 5-0 in dual matches over her short career.
- Graduate student Iuliia Bryzgalova needs seven singles wins to reach 100 for her collegiate career, while fellow graduate student Brianna Shvets needs 11 wins for 100.
- Shvets reached 50 career dual match wins with her match-clinching victory against Charlotte on Thursday (50-13).
- The Blue Devils have won 49 out of the last 50 matches when winning the doubles point.Duke had won 47 in a row, before a defeat in the NCAA Tournament second round last season to UCLA.
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