Junior Stephanie Vlad (left) returns the ball to UC Davis doubles partners, while her partner, junior Desirae Krawczyk, awaits the return 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)For the second consecutive week the Sun Devils faced ranked competition and lost, after playing against No. 17 Northwestern and No. 44 Kentucky last weekend.
After its strong performance last week, the team jumped five spots in this week’s ITA rankings, jumping from No. 31 to No. 27.
Earlier in the week coach Sheila McInerney discussed what she felt her team needed to do in order to win this week against one of the better team sin the county.
“I think we’ve practicing well, and I think that we’re motivated,” she said. "We’re going to have to play well to win.”
Initially, they did, getting off to a strong start during the doubles session.
The No. 2 pairing of sophomore Kassidy Jump and senior Joanna Smith scored the team’s first win during doubles, winning 6-1 over Ohio State’s freshman Anna Sanford and junior Grâinne O’Neill. The win now puts the duo at 4-0 as a pairing this season.
Juniors Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad also continued their impressive form, winning their doubles match against Ohio State’s Sanford and O’Neill 6-2, claiming the point from the doubles match for the Sun Devils.
However, the singles bouts proved to be a tough battle once again for ASU.
Krawczyk played Sanford, the No. 86-ranked singles player in the country. Despite winning the match in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, the duel was a tightly contested game throughout their matchup.
Jump would go on to win her singles match against sophomore Ferny Paz, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4. The win placed the team in the lead 3-2.
Three of the team’s other singles players lost, leaving the score tied at 3-3. A match featuring Sun Devils sophomore Alex Osborne and Buckeyes freshman Olivia Sneed—the No. 71-ranked player in the country—settled the final point.
Osborne played very well, claiming the first set 6-4, then just losing the second set 5-7. By the third set, the entire crowd’s attention was fixated upon the court hosting the game-deciding match.
“It was my first experience being in that type of situation,” said Osborne. “It was pretty intense. I didn’t actually know that it was the deciding match. I was just playing my game, then I had a feeling when the crowd started to move across (to the other side of the stadium). But, I had no idea (it was the deciding game).”
Osborne would play hard, however would lose the final set 5-7.
The team lost the game to the Buckeyes 3-4 for their second-consecutive loss, and its first loss of the dual-match season at home.
“We just didn’t close,” coach McInerney said. “You’ve got to expect a team like Ohio State to come out there and not give up. After winning some second and first sets, we let the other team take a lead in the second, and to their credit they fought hard.
“We’re just going to have to be resilient and tough because we’re going to have a lot of matches like this this year.”
Resiliency will be the key for Krawczyk and the Sun Devils.
“We all need to keep fighting,” said Krawczyk. “It’s unfortunate to lose, but we do need to get better, myself as well.”
The Sun Devils will look to rebound at the National Team Indoors, which begin on Friday in Charlottesville, VA and continue through Monday, Feb 9.
The team’s next home game will take place on Valentine’s Day against Brigham Young at 12 p.m. in Tempe.
Reach the reporter at kajone31@asu.edu or follow @kaelenjones on Twitter.
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