Sophomore Kassidy Jump awaits the serve from UC Davis player Lani-Rae Green on Saturday Jan. 15, 2015, at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe. Jump won the match 6-2, 6-2. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)The No. 27 Sun Devils (2-2) have lost two straight matches after winning their first two of the dual-match season but are looking to get back on track.
Coach Sheila McInerney said her team simply hasn’t been able to sustain the strong play it has started each of its four dual-matches with.
“You know, I think that we’re actually playing OK,” she said. “We’re just not finishing."
While the Sun Devils can lead, they tend to just assume teams will lose rather than trying to win the game themselves, she said.
“In tennis there’s no clock, there’s no going out of bounds, there’s no ‘the game’s gonna end in 20 minutes,’ there’s no 18th hole and you stop — I mean this can go on forever," McInerney said. "So it’s one of those situations where for us, we just gotta keep our foot on the gas pedal when we get a lead and just expect to have to compete to the end.”
While the team is aware that it's dropped its last two games against talented opposition, it is not allowing that to prevent it from looking forward with success in mind.
Junior Stephanie Vlad said she still expects the team to do great things.
“I think these past two weeks have been really good learning weeks, and we know what each of us individually need to work on," she said.
The team will be idle for nearly two weeks after failing to qualify for the National Team Indoors, which takes place this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The break will benefit her team, McInerney said.
“I think it’s important," she said. "In a lot of ways you don’t like it, you know? You like to keep going on, playing when you’re in that sort of routine, but with that being said, I mean, it’s a good time after having a couple of losses to have 10 days to work on things. We’ve gotta start today (Monday) and have a great practice and then follow it up with another great one tomorrow.”
During the break, the team looks to address key areas in its game, both individually and collectively. This includes simulating match play in practices, senior Joanna Smith said.
“We have almost two weeks ahead of us without a match, so I think we’re all just looking forward to working really hard on what we need to work on that we hadn’t really executed well in our matches," she said.
Vlad echoed her teammate.
“A big thing that’s been addressed is simulating match play in practice, because we’re faced with situations in matches that sometimes we don’t get exposure to when we’re just playing amongst each other, and it’s really important for us to know how to handle ourselves in those situations,” she said.
Familiarity with such situations, along with in-game experience is something associate head coach Clint Letcher believes has allowed the Sun Devils to enjoy the success they have throughout the course of the year.
“It’s been the most important thing,” Letcher said. “It’s what we’ve needed. We had a good fall, had a break, and now it’s just a matter of getting back out on the court and playing matches, and that’s exactly what we’ve started to do.”
Experience is something McInerney undoubtedly possesses. Having 30 years under her belt as the Sun Devils head coach, she’s seen this situation before, and explained how she and her team plan to overcome early adversity.
“It’s like anything, you’ve gotta flush it once the match is over with,” she said. “The last three matches we’ve played have come down to the last match. Every match we expect the same thing to happen, so there’s literally taking it one day of practice at a time and one match at a time.”
Smith, having played four years for McInerney, reflected the same approach moving forward.
“I think once the match is over with we kind of leave it behind us and move forward so we don’t really let it hang over and dwell on it at all,” Smith said. “I think it’ll be really important for us to use these next two weeks to re-focus and look forward."
The Sun Devils have demonstrated early in the dual-match season that they’re capable of competing at a high level against outstanding competition. However, while individuals have been able to stand out at particular times, the team has yet to put on a full showing where the entire team has looked dominant since the first match against UC Davis.
“Collectively, as a team, I think everyone has had a shining moment so far,” Letcher said, “It’s just, hopefully, they can all have that shining moment at the same time.”
The Sun Devils will have a plenty of practices to find the collective form they started the year with before they take on BYU in Tempe on Valentine’s Day.
Reach the reporter at kajone31@asu.edu or follow @kaelenjones on Twitter.
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