The No. 27 Arizona State women's tennis team opens up its home schedule Thursday when it takes on No. 43 Princeton at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
It will be the first of back-to-back dual matches for the Sun Devils, who host the University of El Paso-Texas Friday.
"Its obviously exciting playing at home," junior Gussie O'Sullivan said. "It's much more comfortable playing here, you know the fans are on your side cheering you on."
The team hasn't been on its home court since playing in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational Nov. 15. Senior Desirae Krawczyk came out with the win in the Thunderbird, then followed it up with another victory at the Palm Springs Invite before dropping her first matchup last weekend against Northwestern sophomore Maddie Lipp.
"She was just really anxious quite frankly," said head coach Sheila McInerney. "She got down a bit, and I think there was a little bit of a panic mode to be honest with you. I just told her to relax."
Krawcyzk rebounded the following day to help ASU sweep Notre Dame 4-0.
The team looks to carry the momentum from that sweep into Thursday's match against Princeton, who shouldn't present any surprises for the Sun Devils. The Tigers have knocked ASU out of the NCAA Team Championships in two of the last three seasons.
"We have some notes on them, I'm sure they've got some notes on us," said McInerney. "They've beaten us two years at the NCAAs, and they're even better now than they were then."
O'Sullivan, who was a freshman when ASU was last bounced from the NCAA tournament by Princeton, did admit that some of the players are looking for revenge this time around.
"Yeah definitely, we don't want to lose to them again," she said. "It wasn't a very nice feeling last time so we'd like some revenge for that."
The Sun Devils will again be without senior Stephanie Vlad, who has missed the last two competitions due to a stress reaction in her shin. In singles, freshman Sammi Hampton will replace Vlad in the top six while O'Sullivan will take the seniors' place in the top doubles pairing with Krawcyzk. Hampton, who will play the first home match of her young career, said that while the injury is unfortunate for the team, it creates opportunities for players like herself to get experience.
"It's not the best thing for the team, obviously we want Stephanie out there," said Hampton. "But we all move up a step in competition with her out. It makes us work harder and see how far we can go."
Related Links:
ASU tennis sweeps No. 32 Notre Dame, loses to Northwestern
ASU tennis shifts gears for first team competition
Reach the reporter at mfaye@asu.edu or follow @mattGfaye on Twitter.
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