Match 25
No. 18 Duke (18-6, 9-4 ACC) vs. No. 1 North Carolina (29-0, 13-0 ACC)
Wednesday, May 19 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Orlando, Fla. l USTA National Campus
May 18, 2021
DURHAM, N.C. – For the third consecutive championship, the 18th-ranked Duke women's tennis team will compete in the quarterfinals at the 2021 NCAA Tournament at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. The Blue Devils (18-6) are set to match up against No. 1 seeded North Carolina (29-0) on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. The contest will be aired live on Tennis Channel.
The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to the national semifinal to face the winner of No. 4 seeded UCLA (22-4, 10-0 PAC-12) and No. 5 Pepperdine (23-3, 8-0 WCC) on Friday, May 21.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal, defeating their second straight top-10 opponent in a 4-3 thriller against No. 9 UCF. The Blue Devils started quickly with a 3-0 lead over the Knights on Friday and held on after UCF tied the match at 3-3. Sophomore
Chloe Beck delivered the Blue Devils a comeback victory in the final match for the second straight time, as senior
Kelly Chen did against No. 8 Baylor. Beck recovered from a set down to take the match over UCF's Evgeniya Levashova 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
Duke is amid its 31st consecutive and 32nd overall NCAA Tournament in search of its second title in school history. The Blue Devils are 73-30 (.709) overall in the national championships, with head coach
Jamie Ashworth owning a record of 63-22 (.741) over his tenure at the helm of the program. Duke last won the NCAA Tournament in 2009 over California in College Station, Texas.
THE SERIES WITH NORTH CAROLINA
Duke and North Carolina will meet for the 91st time program history, as the two Tobacco Road rivals meet on neutral ground. The Blue Devils faced the Tar Heels earlier in the regular season, falling 1-6 on March 19, but hold a 47-43 overall record against the ACC rival. The two teams have met in the postseason five times, with the Blue Devils trailing 1-4. The last matchup came in the 2017 NCAA Tournament round of 16, with North Carolina earning a 4-0 win.
NORTH CAROLINA IN THE RANKINGS
The Tar Heels feature some of the top student-athletes in the nation with eight in the singles rankings: Sara Daavettila (No. 2), Cameron Morra (No. 27), Makenna Jones (No. 32), Fiona Crawley (No. 36), Alexa Graham (No. 41), Elizabeth Scotty (No. 97), Anika Yarlagadda (No. 110) and Reilly Tran (No. 117). In doubles, Daavettila/Morra (No. 2), Jones/Scotty (No. 4), Alle Sanford/Tran (No. 34), Morra/Scotty (No. 43), Scotty/Sanford (No. 45), Daavettila/Graham (No. 55) and Kacie Harvey/Tran (No. 81), are the seven ranked duos.
WHAT WOULD BE NEXT?
If Duke advances past North Carolina, the Blue Devils would face either No. 4 seeded UCLA (22-4, 10-0 PAC-12) or No. 5 Pepperdine (23-3, 8-0 WCC) in the national semifinal. The Blue Devils are 4-6 overall against UCLA in program history, with the last meeting coming in the 2014 NCAA Tournament quarterfinal, with UCLA earning a 4-2 win. The Blue Devils are 8-5 against Pepperdine, with the last matchup resulting in a 4-1 victory for the Blue Devils on February 6, 2020.
IN THE ITA TEAM RANKINGS
The Blue Devils currently are ranked No. 18 nationally in the latest ITA ledger. Over the last four seasons, Duke has been ranked in the top-10 in 47 of the last 56 ITA rankings.
DUKE IN THE INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
Duke features four ranked student-athletes in singles – Drummy (19),
Chloe Beck (39),
Meible Chi (40) and Chen (49). The Blue Devils also feature six doubles teams on the national list – Beck/
Karolina Berankova are No. 9,
Margaryta Bilokin/Chi at No. 10, Drummy/Berankova (No. 37), Chen/Drummy (No. 41), Beck/Chi (No. 50) and
Hannah Zhao/Chi (No. 58).
EYES ON ORLANDO
The Blue Devils season continues in Orlando, Fla., as the NCAA announced the selections for the 2021 NCAA Singles Championship and Doubles Championship. Beck, Chen and Drummy have been selected to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship, while Chi has been named the first alternate. The Blue Devils are in search of their first individual champion since
Mallory Cecil won in 2009. In doubles, Beck/Berankova and Bilokin/Chi will seek the national title.
ALL-ACC HONORS
The Blue Devils were well-represented in the last group of All-ACC honorees, as the league announced that Beck, Chen and Drummy were named to the second team, while Chi earned third team accolades. Beck and Drummy earned the first All-ACC honors of their collegiate careers, while Chen was named to list for the third time. Chi became just the 15th player in Blue Devils history to earn four separate All-ACC honors.
BLUE DEVILS BACK HEALTHY HEADING INTO POSTSEASON PLAY
As the Blue Devils continue in the NCAA Tournament, Duke is riding some momentum after going through a trying stretch earlier in the season with three losses over a span of four matches from March 12-27. During this streak, the Blue Devils were without the services of a healthy Drummy and Beck due to freak injuries.
Since the duo have been back and healthy, Duke closed the regular season with wins against Boston College, Syracuse and Wake Forest and added wins over Louisville in the ACC Tournament and No. 43 Alabama, No. 8 Baylor and No. 9 UCF in the NCAA Tournament. It marks the first time since Duke's NCAA Championship season in 2009 that the Blue Devils have defeated back-to-back top-10 opponents in NCAA Tournament action.
CHI NETS DUKE RECORD
With her singles win on the road at Syracuse, Chi collected her 42nd all-time ACC singles win to move past Ellyse Hamlin (41) for the Duke record. Chi and Hamlin are the only two Blue Devils to reach the 40-win mark in school history for ACC play. Chi closed the regular season with another ACC victory against Wake Forest to close her career with 43 ACC singles wins.
CHI MOVING UP WINS LIST
A product of Weston, Fla., Chi currently features a 136-37 all-time singles mark, which moves her into sole possession of fourth place, passing Julie Exum (135-41) on Duke's all-time wins list. Chi need six more victories to move into a tie for third place, held by
Reka Zsilinszka (142-33).
Chi owns a 231-77 combined singles and doubles wins over her Duke career, which ranks fourth on Duke's all-time charts. To reach third place, she will have to collect five more victories to tie Zsilinszka (236).
In other record charts, Chi ranks 13th with 94 overall doubles wins, fifth with 90 dual match singles wins, fifth with 71 dual match doubles wins, third with 44 singles wins at No. 2 position and 10th with 22 singles wins at No. 4 position.
IN SINGLES ACTION
Six different Blue Devils have pushed past the double-digit singles wins ledger this season with Chi leading the way with a 24-3 record. She has collected a 21-2 dual match mark and a 12-1 ACC record. Dating back to the 2018-19 campaign, Chi has won 21 out of her last 22 ACC dual match singles contests. She is also riding a 10-match winning streak heading into Wednesday's match.
Beck has collected a 19-4 singles mark and 9-2 ACC ledger. Drummy owns a 20-4 ledger, Bilokin has totaled a 14-11 record, Chen owns a 11-12 record and Berankova has a 11-13 mark. Drummy is riding a career-best eight-match singles win streak.
DOUBLES ACTION
In doubles action, the duos of Beck and Berankova and Chen/Drummy own a team-best 15 doubles wins on the year. Chen/Drummy have won 14 out of the last 17 matches and owns an 15-5 record. The duo are 14-3 in dual match action and 6-1 in the ACC. Beck/Berankova have totaled an 15-5 record, including 12-3 in dual action.
The Blue Devils' duo of Bilokin and Chi have collected a 13-4 ledger, including a 7-3 mark in conference play. Since getting paired together last season, Bilokin/Chi have notched a 17-7 record, including a 9-3 ledger in conference action.
Dating back to last season, Duke has won 21 out of the last 25 doubles points in dual matches.
Due to injuries, Chi and
Hannah Zhao saw action for the first time this season and knocked off the 21st-ranked duo of Emma Navarro and Rosie Johanson of Virginia (6-4). Chen and
Ema Lazic also played together for the first time and collected a 6-3 win over 41st-ranked Vivian Glozman and Amber O'Dell of Virginia. Chen/Lazic improved to 2-0 on the season against Notre Dame with a 6-0 blanking of Yashna Yellayi/Julia Andreach. Chi/Zhao moved to 5-1 all-time in doubles as a unit but marked the first time since the 2019-20 campaign the tandem took the court together.
DRUMMY, BECK MISSES MISS MATCHES
Drummy missed the North Carolina and Virginia contests with an ankle injury but returned for doubles action against Notre Dame and for both singles and doubles against NC State. Since transferring to Duke, Drummy has totaled a 18-4 singles mark and 8-2 ACC ledger. Drummy is also 16-6 in doubles action, including an 14-3 dual match record. She paired with Berankova and knocked off the 11th-ranked doubles team nationally recently against Notre Dame.
Beck missed the Virginia and Notre Dame matches with a hand injury but returned against NC State and won her singles contest.
BECK REGISTERS TOP-10 WIN
One of the most impressive individual victories of the season came on the road at top-ranked North Carolina on March 19, as Beck collected an impressive singles' win against sixth-ranked Cameron Morra. After dropping a close first set, 6-7, Beck responded by cruising to a 6-0 second set victory. In a back-and-forth super-tiebreaker, Beck came out on top winning, 12-10. It marked the highest singles win of her short career and second against a top-10 opponent. Beck owns a 25-4 dual match record and 11-2 ACC mark over her Duke career. She has won 13 out of her last 15 singles matches.
CHEN AND CHI VERSUS RANKED
Over her four seasons with the Blue Devils, Chen has collected a 107-35 singles record. Of the 107 wins, 43 of them have come against ranked opponents. Chen's 107 career wins currently ranks 19th on the Duke charts and she will move into a tie for 18th along with Amanda Granson (108) with one more victory.
Chi has registered 38 wins against ranked foes over her five-year career with the Blue Devils. She recently knocked off Virginia's 18th-ranked Natasha Subhash and Notre Dame's 74th-ranked Page Freeman. The win at Virginia marked the highest win against a ranked opponent since 11th-ranked Carla Touly in Nov. of 2018.
MATCH-CLINCHING WINS
Chi clinched both of the Blue Devil wins against No. 5 Florida State and No. 30 Miami. She has now clinched 24 Duke wins during her tenure. Of the other Duke student-athletes on the 2021 roster, Chen has clinched 14, while Bilokin (10), Beck (8), Zhao (6), Drummy (2) have closed out Blue Devil wins over their career.
CHI RECEIVES ACC POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
The ACC recently announced a list of 52 student-athletes who have been selected as 2021 Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship Award recipients with Duke's Chi one of four Blue Devils receiving accolades.
COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
Due to the impact of COVID-19, Duke University will begin its spring sport program seasons without spectators at home events. Contests played on Duke's campus will include essential game management personnel and broadcast media. Traditional parking lots used by fans on game day will be closed.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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