A knee injury to sophomore No. 49 Desirae Krawczyk derailed No. 19 ASU women's tennis early in singles, opening the door to a 7-0 defeat to the hands of No. 2 UCLA.
“She really had a hard time bending and moving it,” ASU coach Sheila McInerney said.
McInerney said there was no swelling and the injury did not appear to come from any sudden or jerky movement, but Krawczyk was in pain and called the trainer, Veronica Perez, to look.
“Des likes to compete,” McInerney said. She wouldn’t have come off the court unless she knew it was something that was obviously serious.”
She only completed games of the first singles set, resulting in a 2-1 loss to freshman No. 11 Jennifer Brady. Krawczyk was able to get a doubles match in prior to the injury, though.
She and junior Leighann Sahagun played against the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the nation, consisting of junior Robin Anderson and Brady. The Sun Devil duo put up a fight.
“Desirae played really well, serving big, returning big,” McInerney said.
Their match was called off with the Bruins leading 7-5; junior Joanna Smith and freshman Kassidy Jump had lost 8-3, and sophomore Ebony Panoho and freshman Alex Osborne fell 8-6 in a tight match.
Panoho and Osborne led 5-2, according to McInerney, before falling apart. The score was tied at 6-6, and McInerney described the turning point as “a little unlucky.”
She said the pair missed an easy hit, lost the point and ended up losing the set.
This marked the first doubles match since March 7 that sophomore Stephanie Vlad did not compete in, and the March match was due to injury.
“Steph had a real tough grinder of a singles match yesterday,” McInerney said.
No. 68 Vlad rested in doubles but competed in singles, and did so against No. 2 Anderson.
Vlad fell 6-3, 6-2.
“(Anderson) just does everything a little bit better,” McInerney said.
Freshman Gussie O’Sullivan, occupying the sixth court, was the only ASU player to win a set. She won her first set 7-5.
O’Sullivan was unable to maintain momentum and fell 6-3 in set two, before losing the tiebreaker set 10-4.
McInerney has stated that California attracts strong talent from its weather, academics, and overall reputation for athletic success. UCLA is no exception; its third and fourth courts both featured ranked athletes.
Jump took the court against freshman No. 31 Kyle McPhillips. Jump fought strong in the first set before falling 6-3, but couldn’t hold her own in set two en route to a 6-1 defeat.
“McPhillips is just a little more experienced than Kassidy,” McInerney said.
Sahagun played freshman No. 74 Catherine Harrison, who defeated the Sun Devil junior 6-2 in consecutive sets.
Panoho paired off better against junior Kaitlin Ray, but was unable to gain momentum and lost.
“Ebony had some chances,” McInerney said.
She called Panoho’s game “sloppy” after the freshman gave up leads early in sets. This resulted in a 6-3, 6-4 loss.
“We didn’t play as well as we needed to play,” McInerney said about the team. “UCLA is a notch ahead, I think, of (USC) and we didn’t raise our level to their level.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
