{"id":577040,"date":"2026-04-02T08:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577040\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:41:08","slug":"no-24-blue-devils-fall-4-1-to-no-5-north-carolina-in-acc-womens-tennis-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577040\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 24 Blue Devils Fall, 4-1, to No. 5 North Carolina in ACC Women\u2019s Tennis Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 The 24th-ranked Duke women’s tennis team gave fifth-ranked North Carolina all they could handle Wednesday afternoon in front of a standout crowd inside Amber Tennis Stadium, but the Tar Heels came away with a 4-1 victory in the end.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nBlue Devil freshman Claire An<\/a> collected her first collegiate ranked singles victory in the match for Duke.\u00a0 With the loss, Duke dropped to 12-6 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, while North Carolina improved to 19-2, 7-1.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nHow It Happened <\/p>\n


\n\tThe doubles action was tightly contested on all three courts from the start.\u00a0
\n\tOn court three, Duke’s Liv Hovde<\/a> and Aspen Schuman<\/a> dropped the first game, but came back to win the next two games to go ahead, 2-1.\u00a0 After North Carolina’s Tatum Evans and Maddy Zampardo evened the score, 2-2, Duke won back-to-back games to take a 4-2 advantage.\u00a0 The Blue Devils dropped a deuce point in the next, but responded by winning the next two games to win, 6-3.
\n\tAfter going ahead, 3-2, on court one, Irina Balus<\/a> and Shavit Kimchi<\/a> dropped two straight games against fourth-ranked Oby Kajuru and Susanna Maltby to fall behind, 4-3.\u00a0 Duke broke the Tar Heels to even the score, 4-4, but lost the next two games to drop the set, 6-4.
\n\tThe doubles point came down to court two with 84th-ranked Duke’s Eleana Yu<\/a> and Claire An<\/a> versus third-ranked Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton.\u00a0 After falling behind, 1-0, the Blue Devils held serve and then broke UNC to go ahead, 2-1.\u00a0 North Carolina won three games in a row to take a 4-2 lead, but the Blue Devils stormed back to win two consecutive games to even the score, 4-4.\u00a0 The Tar Heels won the final two games to clinch the point, 6-4.\u00a0
\n\tIn singles action, the Blue Devils struck first as Duke’s An was impressive from the start dropping only three games and defeating 111th-ranked Anna Frey, 6-1, 6-2, on court four.\u00a0 The win for An marked her first collegiate ranked singles win.\u00a0
\n\tIn a battle of two top-15 ranked players, Duke’s 15th-ranked Balus faced No. 2 Brantmeier on court one.\u00a0 Balus dropped the first two games, but battled back to trail, 3-2, and 4-5, but eventually lost the first set, 6-4.\u00a0 In the second, Balus won the first game and was tied, 5-5, but Brantmeier broke Balus and won the set, 7-5, to give the Tar Heels a 2-1 lead.\u00a0
\n\tSchuman, who is ranked No. 77 went up against No. 8 Kajuru of North Carolina on court two.\u00a0 In the first set, Schuman led, 2-1, but Kajuru broke Schuman to even the ledger, 2-2.\u00a0 With the match tied, 3-3, Kajuru won three out of the next four games to take the set, 6-4.\u00a0 Schuman dropped three deuce points during the stretch.\u00a0 The second set was back-and-forth with the contest tied at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4, but Kajuru won the final two games to put a third point on the board for UNC.\u00a0
\n\tOn court six, Yu went up against 108th-ranked Alanis Hamilton.\u00a0 Trailing, 2-1, Yu held serve to even the score, 2-2.\u00a0 Hamilton ended up taking a 5-3 lead, but Yu fought back to even the score, 5-5, on a crucial deuce point.\u00a0 North Carolina won the final two games to take the first set, 7-5.\u00a0 In the second, Yu won the first game, but Hamilton won six out of the next seven to clinch the match with a 6-2 victory.\u00a0
\n\tWhen the match was clinched, Hovde was trailing 27th-ranked Evans on court three, 6-7 (4-7), 3-5.\u00a0 Hovde showed grit in the first set fighting back from being down, 6-5, but after being tied, 3-3, in the tiebreaker Evans took control and won the first set with a 7-4 tiebreaking victory.\u00a0
\n\tKimchi jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set against Zampardo on court five, but UNC made a run of her own winning the first set, 6-4.\u00a0 In the second, Kimchi opened with another 3-0 lead and led 4-1, before Zampardo battled back to even the score, 5-5.\u00a0 Kimchi though finished strong to take the second set, 7-5, when the match was clinched.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nNotes<\/p>\n


\n\tIn rookie Claire An’s<\/a> first match against a ranked opponent at Duke, she registered the straight set victory to improve to 11-4 overall and 4-0 in ACC action.\u00a0 She has won five matches in a row.\u00a0
\n\tDuke’s doubles duo of Aspen Schuman<\/a> and Liv Hovde<\/a> improved to 2-0 on the season and 2-0 in ACC play.\u00a0
\n\tThe loss for Duke snapped a 19-match home winning streak for the Blue Devils.
\n\tThe Blue Devils suffered only their 18th loss in Amber Tennis Stadium over this history of the program.\u00a0 Duke is now 133-18 all-time.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nQuotes<\/p>\n


\n\t“Doubles is such a fine line between winning those doubles points and losing the doubles points. And it was actually one of the better doubles matches we’ve played. I think in the moments when it was close with big points, UNC did a better job of being a little bit more aggressive than we were and we were more in a mindset of, I hope they miss here.\u00a0 Hopefully, we learned from that this weekend. It’s been a work in progress for doubles all year and hopefully we’re starting to take some steps forward to end this year.”\u00a0 \u2013 Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth<\/a>
\n\t“Kind of the same thing carried over into singles as doubles. I think we were 1-5 in games, when it was 5-4 in the set, or something like that.\u00a0 That just shows me, in those moments, they did a better job on the big points, and we put ourselves in some good positions. But again, I thought we were too conservative when we needed to be more aggressive. I told them after we can’t hang our heads.\u00a0 We’ve had a lot of matches like this and we’re going get one, but we just have to keep building, keep doing the little things the right way.” \u2013 Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth<\/a>
\n\t“She’s done everything we’ve asked, which is great as a freshman. Knock on wood, she hasn’t been beat since National Team Indoors in February and she has been working hard.\u00a0 She’s been really steady off the baseline and not giving up a lot of free points.\u00a0 A lot of college tennis is the ability to stay on the court and make people work for the point. She did a great job of that today and she’s done a great job with that really all year. So, we need her to keep doing that.” \u2013 Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth<\/a> on freshman Claire An<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nNext Match <\/p>\n


\n\tDuke will remain home this weekend as the Blue Devils host Georgia Tech Friday, April 3 at 5 p.m., and then welcome Clemson Saturday, April 4 at 2 p.m.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nTo stay up to date with Blue Devils women’s tennis, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “DukeWTEN”.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n#GoDuke
\n\u00a0
\n#5 North Carolina 4, #24 Duke 1
\nApril 1, 2026
\nDurham, N.C.\u00a0 *\u00a0 Ambler Tennis Stadium
\n\u00a0
\nDoubles
\n1. #4 Oby Kajuru\/Susanna Maltby (UNC) def. Irina Balus<\/a>\/Shavit Kimchi<\/a> (DU) 6-4
\n2. #3 Reese Brantmeier\/Alanis Hamilton (UNC) def. #84 Eleana Yu<\/a>\/Claire An<\/a> (DU) 6-4
\n3. Liv Hovde<\/a>\/Aspen Schuman<\/a> (DU) def. Tatum Evans\/Maddy Zampardo (UNC) 6-3
\n\u00a0
\nSingles
\n1. #2 Reese Brantmeier (UNC) def. #15 Irina Balus<\/a> (DU) 6-4, 7-5
\n2. #8 Oby Kajuru (UNC) def. #77 Aspen Schuman<\/a>(DU) 6-4, 6-4
\n3. Liv Hovde<\/a> (DU) vs. #27 Tatum Evans (UNC) 6-7 (4-7), 3-5, unfinished
\n4. Claire An<\/a> (DU) def. #111 Anna Frey (UNC) 6-1, 6-2
\n5. Shavit Kimchi<\/a> (DU) vs. Maddy Zampardo (UNC) 4-6, 7-5, unfinished
\n6 \u00a0#108 Alanis Hamilton (UNC) def. Eleana Yu<\/a> (DU) 7-5, 6-2
\n\u00a0
\nOrder of Finish: Doubles (3,1,2*), Singles (4,1,2,6*)
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 The 24th-ranked Duke women’s tennis team gave fifth-ranked North Carolina all they could handle Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-577040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}