No. 18 Duke (17-6, 9-4 ACC) vs. No. 9 UCF (20-4, 3-0 AAC)
Sunday, May 16 | 7 p.m. ET
Orlando, Fla. l USTA National Campus
May 15, 2021
DURHAM, N.C. – The 18th-ranked Duke women's tennis team is back in action at the 2021 NCAA Tournament, competing in the Sweet 16 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. The Blue Devils (17-6) will match up against No. 9 seeded UCF (20-4) on Sunday, May 16 at 7 p.m.
The winner of Sunday's match will advance to the Elite 8 to face the winner of No. 1 seeded North Carolina (28-0, 13-0 ACC) and No. 16 California (19-6, 7-3 Pac-12) on Wednesday.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The Blue Devils had a strong opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 43 Alabama and No. 8 Baylor to advance to the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils started quickly with a 4-0 win over the Crimson Tide on Friday and followed it up with a 4-3 win over the host Bears on Saturday. Senior Kelly Chen delivered the match sealing point in comeback fashion, recovering from a set and a break down to take the match over No. 67 Mel Krywoj 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
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 72-30 (.706) overall in the national championships, with head coach Jamie Ashworth owning a record of 62-22 (.738) 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 UCF
Duke and UCF will meet for the third time in school history with the Blue Devils leading the series, 2-0. The two sides last met on Mar. 9, 2012, with the Blue Devils coming out victorious in a 7-0 win. The matchup is a neutral site match, but takes place at the home facility of UCF, which is located in Orlando, Fla. It will mark Duke's second straight matchup that is neutral site, but based at the opponent's home facility.
UCF IN THE RANKINGS
UCF features two players – Valeriya Zeleva (No. 22) and Rebeka Stolmar (No. 38) in the singles rankings.
WHAT WOULD BE NEXT?
If Duke advances past UCF, the Blue Devils would face either No. 1 seeded North Carolina (28-0, 13-0 ACC) or No. 16 California (19-6, 7-3 Pac-12) in the Elite 8. The Blue Devils met 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 Blue Devils are 10-2 overall against California in program history, with the last meeting resulting in a 4-2 victory for Duke on February 9, 2014.
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.
CALIFORNIA IN THE RANKINGS
The Golden Bears are represented by one student-athlete in the singles rankings: Haley Giavara (No. 31).
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 will continue 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 looking for a fresh start 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 and No. 8 Baylor in the NCAA Tournament.
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 135-37 all-time singles mark, which moves her into a tie for fourth with Julie Exum (135-41) on Duke's all-time wins list. Her next win would move her into sole possession of fourth place and set her sights on third place, held by Reka Zsilinszka (142-33).
Chi owns a 229-77 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 seven more victories to tie Zsilinszka (236).
In other record charts, Chi ranks 13th with 93 overall doubles wins, fifth with 89 dual match singles wins, fifth with 70 dual match doubles wins, third with 44 singles wins at No. 2 position and 10th with 21 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 23-3 record. She has collected a 20-2 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.
Beck has collected a 18-4 singles mark and 9-2 ACC ledger. Drummy owns a 19-4 ledger, Bilokin has totaled a 14-10 record, Chen owns a 11-11 record and Berankova has a 11-12 mark.
DOUBLES ACTION
In doubles action, the duo of Beck and Berankova own a team-best 15 doubles wins on the year. Chen/Drummy have won 13 out of the last 16 matches and owns an 14-5 record. The duo are 13-3 in dual match action and 6-1 in the ACC. Beck/Berankova have totaled an 15-4 record, including 12-2 in dual action.
The Blue Devils' duo of Bilokin and Chi have collected a 12-4 ledger, including a 7-3 mark in conference play. Since getting paired together last season, Bilokin/Chi have notched a 16-7 record, including a 9-3 ledger in conference action.
Dating back to last season, Duke has won 20 out of the last 24 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 107-34 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), Zhao (6), Beck (7), 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
For more information on Duke women's tennis, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "DukeWTEN".
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