The injury factory that has been ASU women’s tennis team’s Achilles heel lately may have produced another victim to go along with two victories on Friday and Saturday.

Already short three players, the No. 30 Sun Devils watched as junior Ashlee Brown was forced to retire from her match.

The injury list now includes Brown, junior Micaela Hein, sophomore Michelle Brycki and freshman Nicole Smith.

Even with the minimum number of players, the Sun Devils (2-0) battled cold conditions and windy weather to defeat UC Santa Barbara (0-2) and UC Davis (0-1).

“The biggest upset this weekend was getting both matches in,” ASU coach Sheila McInerney said.

No doubles matches provided zero problems for ASU against the Gauchos from Santa Barbara, as the Sun Devils pulled off a 5-1 victory in the season opener.

Four Sun Devils only needed two sets to put away their opponent.

ASU junior Kelcy McKenna led the way with a win over UC Santa Barbara sophomore Sofia Novak (6-4, 6-2). That was followed by a victory from the new lady on the court, ASU freshman Hannah James, who beat UC Santa Barbara senior Asagi Onaga (6-4, 6-3).

Victories also came from senior Nadia Abdala (3-6, 6-3, 7-6 over UC Santa Barbara sophomore Natalia Lozano), sophomore Sianna Simmons (7-6, 7-5 over UC Santa Barbara sophomore Jordan Dockendorf), and senior Amanda Martin (6-2, 7-5 over UC Santa Barbara freshman Erica Cano).

The win for Martin came in the first dual match of her career at ASU.
Doubles weren’t a problem the following day.

All three tandems quickly took care of their opponents to put the Sun Devils in the lead.

The duo of McKenna and James easily put away the UC Davis duo of senior Desiree Stone and sophomore Noelle Edles (8-0).

Shortly after, Abdala and Brown took down UC Davis senior Herzyl Legaspi and sophomore Dahra Zamudio (8-1) and ASU’s Simmons and Martin blew out UC Davis junior Sidney Brady and freshman Lauren Curry (8-2).

“We came out and beat them handedly in the doubles, and to their credit, they came out and played really well in the singles,” McInerney said.
The singles matches were much closer, as ASU won four of the six to clinch a 5-2 victory over the Aggies.

Once again, McKenna and James were the first ones to leave the court with wins in two sets, but Abdala was taken to three sets before beating Zamudio (4-6, 7-5, 6-4) and Simmons mounted a comeback to beat Edles (6-7, 6-4, 6-1).

Martin fell in three sets to Brady (3-6, 6-1, 6-3), and Brown gave the team another scare when she retired due to injury in the third set of her match against Curry.

“Amanda just battled,” McInerney said. “It’s only her second match ever in four years. Wins from Amanda this weekend were gravy.”

The team’s next destination is Atlanta, Ga. to match up with Georgia Tech for a spot in the National Indoor Championships.

“It’s always good to start off the year,” McInerney said. “The competition is going to get tougher as we go, and we’ve got to get healthy and we’ve got to play better.”

Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu