Blue Devils Advance to ACC Championship Quarterfinals

Thursday, April 18

Cary, N.C.

3:30 p.m.

Duke University

Wake Forest

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

Blue Devils Advance to ACC Championship Quarterfinals

4/18/2024 9:04:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery Ashworth Interview

CARY, N.C. – The 24th-ranked Duke women's tennis team topped 37th-ranked Wake Forest, 4-0, in the second round of the ACC Championship on Thursday afternoon at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C.

Duke rose to 15-8 overall on the season and will next face top-seeded North Carolina on Friday, April 19 at 3:30 p.m., in the quarterfinals. Wake Forest drops to 15-13 overall on the year.

How It Happened

In doubles, Duke started the match on fire by taking all three courts to go ahead, 1-0, in the contest.
On court three, the graduate student tandem of Iuliia Bryzgalova and Brianna Shvets earned a convincing 6-3 victory over Wake Forest's Mia Ahmad and Sankavi Gownder. Bryzgalova and Shvets found themselves in a hole going down, 2-0, early. They would win three straight games to go ahead, 3-2. The Demon Deacons came back to tie the contest, 3-3, but that was not enough as Duke's duo won three straight to take the match.
Duke's Emma Jackson and Shavit Kimchi collected a 6-3 victory over Whitley Pate and Casie Wooten of Wake Forest on court two.
The Blue Devil duo of Katie Codd and Karolina Berankova defeated the 84th-ranked duo of Brooke Killingsworth and Marcella Cruz, 6-3, on court one to complete the doubles sweep for Duke.
To start singles, Duke was dominant, winning five of its first six sets.
Bryzgalova, a native of Moscow, Russia, put forth another impressive performance to increase the Duke lead to 2-0 on the day. In her first set, Bryzgalova went down 1-0 early. She responded by winning six straight games to clinch the first set, 6-1. In the second set, Bryzgalova won two key deuce points leading to a 6-2 second set to clinch the point for the Blue Devils.
Shvets put the third point on the board in singles as she posted a 6-4, 6-1 win over Sankavi Gownder on court five. Shvets earned two hard-fought deuce points to take the first set. In the second set, Shvets took control of the contest, winning four-straight games to win her matchup.
On court two, Kimchi, a Sdey Hemed, Israel product, clinched the victory for the Blue Devils with a 6-3, 6-2 win. Wake Forest's Killingsworth went up early, 2-0. Kimchi then won three-straight to take the score to 3-2. Killingsworth tied the match, 3-3, which was short-lived as Kimchi won three consecutive to take the first set. In the second set, Kimchi was dominant, winning pivotal deuce points to go up 4-0. Killingsworth fought back to take the score to 4-2, but ultimately Kimchi took the second set, 6-2, to clinch the match for the Blue Devils.

Notes

Emma Jackson and Shavit Kimchi are now 3-0 in doubles action on the season, after playing the last two weeks together for the first time.
Karolina Berankova and Katie Codd registered their second victory as a doubles tandem on the season since partnering up on April 12.
Kimchi improved to 17-10 overall in her rookie season.She also clinched her seventh overall match for the Blue Devils this year, which leads the Duke squad.
Kimchi has won four out of her last five singles matches.
Bryzgalova moved to 10-1 at the No. 3 singles slot and has won nine out of her last 10.
Duke is now 16-0 all-time against Wake Forest in the ACC Championship.

Quotes

"I'm happy because I think it shows that we've improved. I mean when we played Wake a couple of weeks ago, we won seven games in doubles.We've focused on that in practice and we made some changes to our doubles teams.I thought we came out in doubles with a lot of energy and it was great to see. I felt like if we could win the doubles, we had enough in our singles to get through that match, but it was great to see the improvement. It's the end of our season, it's the ACC Tournament time and NCAA Tournament coming up and I think it shows that we're still getting better. I told them that and they've worked hard to have that." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Obviously, we know each other so well. We played a good match with them earlier in the year. We gave ourselves some chances and were on the brink of winning some matches.I think those moments got a little too big for us and if we can handle ourselves in those moments well then I like our chances. This group has worked so hard to get to this point and faced a lot of adversity from the Fall into the Spring and it's a tribute to how hard they're working, but I think that they believe that they think they can win.So I'm looking forward to that opportunity. Leave it all on the court, there's nothing to leave out there." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will compete in the ACC Championship Quarterfinals on Friday, April 19 at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C. The Blue Devils will square off against North Carolina at 3:30 p.m.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's tennis, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWTEN".

#GoDuke

#24 Duke 4, #37 Wake Forest 0
April 18, 2024
Cary Tennis Park * Cary, N.C.

Doubles

Karolina Berankova/Katie Codd (DU) def. #84 Brooke Killingsworth/Marcella Cruz (WFU) 6-3
Emma Jackson/Shavit Kimchi (DU) def. Whitley Pate/Casie Wooten (WFU) 6-3
Iuliia Bryzgalova/Brianna Shvets (DU) def. Mia Ahmad/Sankavi Gownder (WFU) 6-3