No. 6 Duke Defeats No. 10 Ohio State, 4-3

Friday, January 21

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

Ohio State

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 6 Duke Defeats No. 10 Ohio State, 4-3

1/22/2022 1:26:00 AM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

DURHAM – The sixth-ranked Duke women's tennis team (1-0) opened the 2022 season with a thrilling 4-3 victory over No. 10 Ohio State (0-1) Friday evening at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

"I told our team I'm as proud of the effort and it's never going to be easy," said head coach Jamie Ashworth. "We're not going to ease into a schedule – we're opening up here with a team that, on paper, is one of the top-10 teams in the country. We have to bring the mental, physical and emotional fortitude every time we play."

The Blue Devils earned the match-clinching victory in a thrilling three-set win by senior Kelly Chen over No. 72 Lucia Marzal. Deadlocked through the first six games, Chen won three of the next four to claim the 6-4 victory in the opening set. Marzal took the second set 6-3, setting up the winner-take-all set three. Chen's confidence never wavered. After battling to a 4-3 advantage, the senior secured the final two games to clinch the match and game for the Blue Devils.

"At the end of the match, that's what got us through that match," Ashworth added. "I think Kelly [Chen] and Georgia [Drummy] were a little more emotional at the end of their matches than they were in the middle [of the matches] and its not easy, but it shouldn't be easy. When you're playing a team like that it should be a fight, it should be a battle and that's what it was."

Duke came out in doubles and was very impressive on court three as Chen and freshman Ellie Coleman defeated Luna Dormet and Marzal, 6-1. While Ohio State won the second doubles match to give each side one win, the Blue Devils had an answer for the Buckeyes.

Duke's 20th-ranked duo of junior Chloe Beck and senior Margaryta Bilokin fell behind 1-4 but the pair showed their resilience as they began to claw their way back. The Blue Devil tandem won the sixth game to cut the deficit in half, but the Buckeyes' Isabelle Boulais and Kolie Allen responded with a win in the seventh game to a 5-2 lead in the match. Beck and Bilokin were unfazed, however, and reeled off four-straight games to tie it up at five. Duke and Ohio State split the next two games to set up a tiebreaker with the score 6-6. With the all-important doubles point on the line, the Duke duo eased to a 7-3 tiebreaker win to claim the match 7-6 (3) and give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.

The 15th-ranked Beck increased the Duke lead to 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-1 win over No. 123 Sydni Ratliff. The Buckeyes were able to erase the deficit entirely prior to No. 73 Georgia Drummy's win over No. 6 Irina Cantos Siemers, as Coleman and Jackson fell. After weathering an early storm in the first set, Drummy took down Cantos Siemers 7-6 (5), 6-4 and regained a 3-2 lead for Duke.

On court six, graduate student Eliza Omirou showed tremendous fight competing in two close matches with No. 114 Luna Dormet. Facing an early 4-2 deficit in the second set, Omirou broke back to put pressure on her opponent and rally back to tie the set at four games apiece. However, Ohio State was able to hold serve and get the point to tie the match at 3-3.

"There's so many ups and downs in a match," said Ashworth. We saved match points in the doubles where if you flip that result, we lose the match 4-3. Some of the singles sets we're up a set point and lose those sets. So, how we recover and how we handle ourselves in those situations says a lot about our team and the character they played with tonight."

UP NEXT
Duke closes out the weekend against the 23rd-ranked Princeton Tigers on Sunday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m.

RESULTS
Singles (2,5,3,1,6,4)
1. #73 Georgia Drummy (DU) def. #6 Irina Cantos Siemers (OSU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
2. #15 Chloe Beck (DU) def. #123 Sydni Ratliff (OSU) 6-0, 6-1
3. Isabelle Boulais (OSU) def. #26 Emma Jackson (DU) 6-1, 6-4
4. Kelly Chen (DU) def. #72 Lucia Marzal (OSU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3*
5. Kolie Allen (OSU) def. #48 Ellie Coleman (DU) 6-4, 6-1
6. #114 Luna Dormet (OSU) def. Eliza Omirou (DU) 7-6 (7-2), 7-5

Doubles (3,2,1)
1. #20 Chloe Beck/Margaryta Bilokin (DU) def. Isabelle Boulais/Kolie Allen (OSU) 7-6 (7-3)
2. #29 Irina Cantos Siemers/Sydni Ratliff (OSU) def. Emma Jackson/Eliza Omirou (DU) 6-3
3. Kelly Chen/Ellie Coleman (DU) def. Lucia Marzal/Luna Dormet (OSU) 6-1

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