Blue Devils Close Road Trip with 4

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The 20th-ranked Duke women's tennis team concluded its road trip this weekend with a tight, 4-3, loss at Michigan, which was contested at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor. The Blue Devils dropped to 9-3 on the year, while the Wolverines improved to 3-4.

How It Happened

In doubles action, Michigan came out and registered early leads on all three courts.

The Wolverines' tandem of Reese Miller and Laura Rahnel jumped out to a 3-0 advantage on court two and ended up with a 6-1 victory over Duke's 39th-ranked Claire An and Eleana Yu.

The Blue Devil duo of Irina Balus and Aspen Schuman dropped the first game on court three against Piper Charney and Emily Sartz-Lunde, but Duke won three out of the next four games to go ahead, 3-2.Michigan came back and won the next four games to clinch the doubles point for the Wolverines with a 6-3 win.

On court one, Duke's 12th-ranked Liv Hovde and Shavit Kimchi were tied, 5-5, with 34th-ranked Lily Jones and Jessica Bernales when the doubles point was clinched.The Blue Devils were ahead, 5-3, late, but Michigan evened the ledger.

The Blue Devils evened the score quickly in singles as Duke's An totaled a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Gabriella Lindgren on court six.It marked the second match in a row An won quickly in singles to even the score.An won the first 10 games of the match, before Lindgren won three in a span of four games.Duke's An was too strong closing the match with the 6-3 win in the second.

Duke took its first lead of the match, 2-1, as 22nd-ranked Balus totaled a 6-4, 7-5 win against 12th-ranked Charney.Balus, who is from Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, opened with a 3-2 lead, but fell behind, 4-3, in the first set.Balus finished strong winning the next three games to take the first set, 6-4.In the second, Balus jumped ahead, 4-1, but Charney came back to go ahead, 5-4.Balus once again came back to win three games in a row to collect the ranked win, 7-5.

Michigan evened the ledger, 2-2, with a three-set victory on court three as 83rd-ranked Miller totaled a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win against Duke's 86th-ranked Schuman.In the first set, Schuman opened with a 4-2 lead, but Miller battled back to win the set, 6-4.Schuman stormed back in the second trailing 4-3, to even the match with a 6-4 victory.The Blue Devil freshman trailed the entire third set dropping the match, 6-3.

Hovde faced 20th-ranked Jones on court two and had a three-set thriller.After Miller won the first set, 6-3, the second set was back-and-forth, but Hovde came out in top in a tiebreaker, 7-3, to send the match to a third set.Hovde broke Jones to lead, 5-4, late, but Jones won the next three games to give Michigan a 3-2 lead.

The match came down to courts four and five to decide the contest.

Yu, who is from Mason, Ohio, took the first set, 6-2, to get off to a hot start and led 4-1 in the second, before 85th-ranked Bernales came back to win the set, 6-4.Bernales opened the third set with a 3-2 lead and led 4-3, but Yu responded with a run to win the third, 6-4, and even the contest, 3-3.

Kimchi and 104th-ranked Sartz-Lunde featured another three-set battle.With the first set even, 5-5, Sartz-Lunde won the next two games to win the first, 7-5.In the second set, Kimchi never trailed, winning, 6-2.Kimchi won the first game of the third set, but Sartz-Lunde won three in a row to take a 3-1 advantage.Kimchi made a run of her own by winning two games to even the score, 3-3, but Sartz-Lunde won the final three games to clinch the Michigan victory, 4-3.

Notes

Duke is three victories away from 1,000 in program history.

Claire An improved to 10-4 on the year and won her third match in a row. An has won seven out of her last eight matches.

Irina Balus totaled her second top-50 win of the season and sixth overall ranked singles win. She has won eight out of her last nine matches and owns 13 singles wins on the season.

Eleana Yu won her fourth singles match in a row to move to 8-6 on the season and 40-17 in her career.

Quotes

"At this point we just aren't good enough in all facets of our game to win tight matches like this. It's the same match we've played three times with the same results and it's definitely frustrating. We have to be willing to do the simple things on a daily basis to put ourselves in a position to win these matches and we just aren't doing it. We have a 12-day break from competition and we need to put our heads down and work to get to a point where we can beat these teams in these situations." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will be off this week and next hosts Louisville (March 13) and Notre Dame (March 15) at Ambler Tennis Stadium.

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

#GoDuke

Michigan 4, #20 Duke 3

March 1, 2026

Ann Arbor, Mich * Varsity Tennis Center

Doubles

#12 Liv Hovde/Shavit Kimchi (DU) vs. #34 Lily Jones/Jessica Bernales (UM) 5-5 unfinished

Reese Miller/Laura Rahnel (UM) def. #39 Claire An/Eleana Yu (DU) 6-1

Piper Charney/Emily Sartz-Lunde (UM) def. Irina Balus/Aspen Schuman (DU) 6-3

Singles

#22 Irina Balus (DU) def. #12 Piper Charney (UM) 6-4, 7-5

#20 Lily Jones (UM) def. #118 Liv Hovde (DU) 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5

#83 Reese Miller (UM) def. #86 Aspen Schuman (DU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

#101 Eleana Yu (DU) def. #85 Jessica Bernales (UM) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

#104 Emily Sartz-Lunde (UM) def. Shavit Kimchi (DU) 7-5, 2-6, 6-3

Claire An (DU) def. Gabriella Lindgren (UM) 6-0, 6-3

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3*) Singles (6,1,3,2,4,5*)

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