Duke Women's Tennis Falls to Texas at National Team Indoors

Balus collects highest-ranked win of career, but Blue Devils drop tight 4-3 decision

Published on Feb. 8, 2026

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Duke women's tennis sophomore Irina Balus collected a victory against the No. 2 ranked singles player nationally, but the seventh-ranked Blue Devils dropped a tight 4-3 match to 18th-ranked Texas at the ITA National Team Indoors tournament.

Why it matters

This was an important early-season matchup between two top-20 women's tennis teams, with the result impacting their national rankings and tournament seeding going forward. Balus' win over the #2 player was a bright spot for Duke, but the team's inability to clinch the doubles point and win enough singles matches proved costly.

The details

In doubles, Texas took the point by winning on courts two and three, despite Duke's 29th-ranked tandem of Claire An and Eleana Yu winning on court two. In singles, Duke got wins from Yu and Balus, but Texas won four of the six first sets and eventually clinched the match on court five.

  • The match took place on Sunday, February 8, 2026 at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Illinois.

The players

Irina Balus

A sophomore on the Duke women's tennis team who is ranked #28 nationally in singles. She defeated the #2 ranked singles player, Carmen Andreea Herea of Texas, in a three-set match.

Texas

The 18th-ranked women's tennis team that defeated 7th-ranked Duke 4-3 in this matchup.

Duke

The 7th-ranked women's tennis team that lost a close 4-3 decision to 18th-ranked Texas at the ITA National Team Indoors tournament.

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What they’re saying

“Definitely a heartbreaker to lose, but hopefully it is a good learning moment for us. In these matches, you have to be extremely physical and Texas did a better job as the matches got into third sets with their legs than we did. If we want to win matches like this against quality opponents like we had today, we need to get physically tougher. This is on us as coaches and our staff to make sure we are able to compete at a high level whether it is the first day of an event or the last.”

— Jamie Ashworth, Duke head coach

What’s next

Duke will have a week off before beginning ACC play, hosting Boston College on February 20 and Syracuse on February 22.

The takeaway

This close loss to a ranked opponent shows that Duke has the talent to compete with the nation's best teams, but they need to improve their physical conditioning to be able to win these tight matches against quality opponents over the course of a full tournament.