Little Wins Add Up to Big Season for Women's Tennis
Meredith Rieder, Senior Associate Director of Communications
It all goes back to a delicious crepe from Duke Cafe inside Duke's West Union six months ago. The bright spot after a particularly tough day for sophomore Shavit Kimchi, the symbolism behind the thin treat grew to spur the eighth-ranked Duke women's tennis team to an undefeated ACC regular season for the first time since 2012 and a top 10 ranking with a 21-3 overall record.
Sure, the Blue Devils feature an incredibly talented lineup as one of two teams in the country with all six singles players landing in the ITA rankings, a pair of steadfast leaders in seniors Ellie Coleman and Emma Jackson and a group of eight with a steely focus on pushing Duke women's tennis back to the top. But it might just be that "little win" for Kimchi on that singular day that has pushed the Blue Devils over the edge this season.
The sentiment of relishing that small victory expressed by Kimchi on that day resonated so strongly with the team it became the team's mantra. Every day for the Blue Devils is about finding and celebrating the "little wins."
"It started out of a funny story last fall with Shavit [Kimchi]," said Coleman. "She was having a rough day. I think she had an exam, practice was hard and the fall is tough in college tennis because it's all individual and long weekends. So, she went and got herself a crepe at West Union and she said 'You know what? This is a little win. This is what I needed in my day.' So, we kind of latched onto that. We take on a lot as student-athletes at Duke and we're really successful most of the time, but you're going to have days that are just hard and it doesn't feel like anything is going right. So, what we can do is latch on to those little wins."
On the tennis court for the Blue Devils, the small victories are winning the first point of a game or winning the first game of a set – the small things that lead to big victories. And regardless of a win or loss it's important to find those little wins.
We have to celebrate little wins. Whether that's within a match, winning the first points of games and doing the little things the right way and then on a larger scale taking the time to reflect if we've done things well and not just, 'We play tomorrow. We play next week,' mentality. Let's embrace everything and celebrate it for what it needs to be and then move on.Head coach Jamie Ashworth
Leading the charge for the Blue Devils in building this team's culture on and off the court is Coleman and Jackson. The duo has shared and learned from all the experiences that come along with being a four-year collegiate athlete. Jackson, a little quieter and a leader by example, likes to observe the team while Coleman is more vocal on the court despite her being introverted off the court.
"I think they are different," Ashworth said about Coleman and Jackson's leadership styles. "Ellie is a little more vocal. Even in matches, she's a little bit more outgoing. Emma's leadership style is more by example. I'm putting my head down and I'm just going to work. I think they've done a great job of balancing that with each other. I think the two of them combined is like a two-headed monster. They've formed a great leadership team and set an example in different ways and the rest of the team feeds off that."
As freshmen they helped the Blue Devils capture an ACC Championship and a berth in the NCAA semifinals while amassing a combined 48 singles wins, including 26 in dual match play.
But the past two seasons have seen Duke fail to make it out of the NCAA Round of 32 – a rarity for the Blue Devils women's tennis program – and Coleman missing the spring of her junior campaign to injury.
"We knew we had two seniors who have been through a lot of different things," Ashworth said. "They've been successful. They've been to a final four, won an ACC Tournament, but they also on the flip side – the past two years they haven't made it past the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament. Their leadership style is they are hungry and they let everyone else know what we've done the past two years isn't the standard that we've set for our program."
After up-and-down sophomore and junior campaigns and realizing the 2024-25 roster would feature so many young and first-year Blue Devils, Coleman and Jackson sat down together over the summer and in the early fall to discuss how their final season could be different.
The tennis skill was there with the newcomers arriving with a wealth of international and junior tennis circuit experience, including Irina Balus who had competed in Junior Australian Open, Junior Wimbledon and Junior U.S. Open. It was up to Coleman and Jackson to build the culture piece and teach the younger members of the team how college tennis works that would take the Blue Devils to the next level.
"We definitely talked over the summer and coming out of a season last year that we knew we could do better and we could build something different," said Jackson. "We were really excited to get a lot of young and hungry girls here. On the one hand, we would have to build a lot of the culture pieces and lead the way, but we were really excited with the potential new young players brought to the team. So, that was our big focus in the fall was just building culture because that is what carries teams through to being successful in the spring, but it really starts in September."
With Coleman and Jackson anchoring the lineup as seniors and Katie Codd and Kimchi bolstering the lineup as a junior and sophomore, respectively, Duke welcomed freshmen Ava Krug, Balus from Slovakia, and 2022 Wimbledon Girls Singles Champion in Liv Hovde and sophomore transfer Eleana Yu from Stanford.
They each brought different skills and experiences both on and off the court and for Ashworth, the diversity has been a cornerstone for this team.
"It's a team of eight completely different personalities," Ashworth said. "You have the two seniors. You have Irina coming in from Europe and Shavit who is a sophomore from Israel. I've told them I don't want eight of the same personalities. I don't want robots on the court. I like the personality. I like the diversity. I like the different backgrounds. Shavit served in the military before she came here. She has a completely different background than Ellie and Emma who grew up in Michigan and Chicago through the American system. I think they've all enjoyed learning from each other and they are a fun group to be around."
Now, how were they going to get this group of eight different personalities – which included Hovde who didn't join the team until January – on the same page?
It might sound a little elementary, but for the captains, one of the primary focuses was on cheering and bringing energy to the court for your teammates and knowing maybe for the first time in your athletic career you are playing for something bigger than yourself.
"I think for us something we needed to start with was teaching the new players how Duke kind of works and how college tennis works," Jackson said.
Coming from individually playing tennis is a lot different than coming to a college tennis atmosphere. So, making sure that we taught a lot of energy pieces and instilling that giving our best energy on the court is what will bring the team the most success.Emma Jackson
Bringing this energy every day requires a certain level of unselfishness to realize that even in practice you are not only working to make yourself better, but also you are doing the same for your teammates. This goes for whether you are playing No. 1 or No. 5 singles, just playing doubles or not playing at all.
And perhaps one of the most unselfish pieces to playing college tennis is to ignore the movement within the lineup. Jackson and Coleman personify this perfectly, having moved around in singles throughout the season. Jackson spent the first month of the season playing No. 1 or No. 2 but settled in mostly at the No. 3 position. Coleman, in a similar fashion, lined up at No. 4 and No. 5 before landing at No. 6 for much of the ACC campaign.
"For me I wasn't too concerned about where I'm playing in the lineup," Coleman said.
I just wanted to bring my best at whatever I was given. Every position is hard to play in our conference so I'm grateful to be given some tough matches. I'm always looking to get a point for my team so personally I'm not too focused on what position in the lineup I've been playing.Ellie Coleman
Ashworth told his team the night before the first game that the lineup in that first match would not be the same in May. He wanted them to be prepared for changes, but he also knew this team and the standard Jackson and Coleman set meant each player would embrace her role whatever it may be.
"Our lineup in my mind is kind of like a living organism," Ashworth said. "It's going to be constantly evolving and constantly changing. Whatever it is, I think they just want to play. They just want to contribute and do whatever they can for the team. Emma is someone we've moved around her whole career. I think we have five people in our top six who have played No. 1 at some point in their career so we have a lot of depth and a lot of options."
The Blue Devils, while disappointed with how the ACC Championship finished, found the little wins within their 4-2 loss in the ACC Championship semifinals. They are back on the practice courts cheering for each other and looking forward to hopefully spending a couple more weekends showing off the talented lineup at Ambler Tennis Stadium.
"We really want to be at graduation," Jackson said about the potential of hosting through to the NCAA quarterfinals. "I think one of my favorite matches actually is when we hosted the second weekend and played Georgia in the round of 16 my freshman year. Every seat was taken I remember. I'd love to recreate that. We just have to wait and see but we're manifesting here."
Manifest away Blue Devils and cherish each little win while on this big journey.
Duke opens NCAA Tournament action Friday, May 2 by hosting Bryant at 4 p.m., inside Ambler Tennis.