Spring Sports Spotlight: Duke women's tennis becomes star despite struggles for Shvetz

As the spring season for college sports comes to a close, Blue Zone is here to shine a spotlight on the Duke University women's tennis team.

Duke University women's tennis faced Wake Forest on Thursday in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Unsurprisingly, like many of the Blue Devils' games this season, the night saw a victory for Brianna Shvetz on Court 5. The graduate transfer from Princeton won in straight sets to help lead Duke to a 4-0 sweep. Thursday's win brings Shvec's total to 14 wins on the season, with five losses and only two games remaining. Shvetz's performance has been a key factor in determining whether the Blue Devils win or succumb to their opponents. Notably, all of Shvetz's eight wins since early March have come with the Blue Devils leading the way, while her three losses in the same period have come at Duke.

Shvetz, a native of Pennington, New Jersey, played three seasons of tennis at Princeton, but the 2020-21 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the 2021-22 season, she transferred to Duke and had a stellar 2023 season in her first year at Durham. Shvetz went 17-2 in single play and was a key piece in the Blue Devils' advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. This year has been largely disappointing by Duke women's tennis standards, in part due to significant roster turnover during the offseason, reducing the team to just seven players. While star player Chloe Beck did not return to pursue a professional career, head coach Jamie Ashworth has selected rising freshman Shavit Kimchi, who alternates between Court 1 and Court 2 throughout the season, to be a freshman. I welcomed you. However, the Blue Devils have struggled to perform against expectations throughout most games, especially compared to the standards they set last year. In the 2022-23 season, Duke finished with a record of 23-5 with just two losses in conference play, while Ashworth's team finished 15-8 this time and 7-6 in conference play. Much of the team struggled in 2024, but throughout it all, Shvetz was the anchor at the back of Ashworth's rotation. Her 26th year head coach has frequently expressed her desire for the rest of the team to share her competitiveness, and the Blue Devils will face UNC in the second round of the ACC Tournament. I echoed that feeling on Friday before doing so.

The game against North Carolina didn't go as planned for Duke. The Blue Devils lost 4-0, especially Kimchi, who lost 7-5 and 6-2. But, unsurprisingly, Shvetz was one of the few Duke players to hold on against the Tar Heels, and her match against No. 75 Thea Loveman was left unfinished and tied at one set. The Blue Devils have one final chance to turn their season around in the NCAA Tournament in May.