Junior Desirae Krawczyk serves to UC Davis doubles partners on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2015, at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe. The match was abandoned due to a 4-3 ASU lead in doubles match. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)Coming off of an impressive showing against UC Davis, the women’s tennis team will travel to Evanston, Illinois, for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
The matches will feature the team's first ranked opponents of the dual-match season, facing No. 17 Northwestern on Saturday and either No. 21 Rice or No. 44 Kentucky on Sunday.
ASU began the dual-match season ranked No. 32 in the country and maintained its position after a 7-0 win during opening weekend against UC Davis.
Likewise, Northwestern remained in the same spot after its performances last weekend against Florida State and Alabama.
Rice also kept hold of its current ranking after sweeping Lamar last weekend. However, No. 44 Kentucky dropped from No. 29 after losing its opening match 4-3 against unranked Hawaii.
Coach Sheila McInerney is aware of the talent that her team will be facing this weekend.
"It's like (that) in anything," McInerney said. "The competition is going to get a lot stronger. We're going to need to play hard and realize that our opponent's going to be a lot tougher (this weekend)."
Northwestern boasts two doubles pairings ranked in the ITA top 50: the No. 24-ranked pairing of junior Alicia Barnett and sophomore Brooke Rischbieth, and the No. 41-ranked pairing of Rischbieth and freshman Rheeya Doshi.
Kentucky also possesses a highly-ranked pair comprised of junior Nadia Ravita and sophomore Aldila Sutjiadi, forming the No. 19-ranked doubles pair in the country.
Rice does not have a nationally-ranked doubles pair on its roster, but senior Natalie Beazant will be the highest-ranked player (No. 24) to take the court this weekend.
The tournament will also mark the first match on the road for the Sun Devils and in the face of such talented opponents the team will look to make a statement early in the year.
"Playing indoors at Northwestern is certainly going to be significantly more of a challenge, but we're looking forward to it," McInerney said.
"The (indoor courts at Northwestern) are a little bit quicker, so I'd probably say we'll be a bit more aggressive. I think that the most important thing is that we have to really go out there and impose our game upon our opponent rather than being reactive and seeing what's going to happen."
The team will return home next weekend to face No. 31 Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 1.
Reach the reporter at kajone31@asu.edu or follow @kaelenjones on Twitter.
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