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Upset city for ASU women's tennis at the Tennessee Fall Invitational

The second tournament of the fall season featured strong performances in singles and doubles

Then-freshman Sammi Hampton runs back for the return  during the match against the  Princeton Tigers on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, at Whiteman Tennis Center in  Tempe.

Then-freshman Sammi Hampton runs back for the return during the match against the Princeton Tigers on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe.


After beginning its competitive season at the Cal Nike Invitational, ASU women's tennis entered its second tournament of the fall campaign over the weekend at the Tennessee Fall Invitational.

Head coach Shelia McInerney looked for progress against three tough schools: Ohio State University, The University of Tennessee and Wake Forest University.

"I think this weekend is a whole different test," McInerney said last Tuesday. "The first tournament this fall was about getting our feet wet, but now it's a little bit more of a team standpoint. 

"Every day you're going to play a doubles match and a singles match, and it's going to be someone of your caliber. So you're going to get to see where you're at from a team perspective."

Singles

After two days of competitive action on Friday and Saturday, the Sun Devils made a statement on Sunday, showing they're ready to compete with the nation's best, even when adversity gets in the way.

Facing preseason No. 25 Ohio State, ASU earned three victories against ranked opponents.

"I thought we rebounded well today (Sunday) and played our best tennis of the weekend," McInerney said.

ITA preseason No. 87, senior Kassidy Jump, defeated No. 79 Gabriella De Santis 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. On court two, sophomore Sammi Hampton claimed the final two sets of her match 7-5, 6-1 after losing the first set in a tiebreaker 6-7 (7).

Both Jump and Hampton finished the tournament with 2-1 records.

McInerney might have found her new singles number two in freshman Savannah Slaysman. After playing her freshman year on court five, Slaysman impressed this weekend in Knoxville, winning two of her three singles matches.

On Sunday, Slaysman turned in the performance of the tournament, holding her own against Ohio State junior and preseason No. 80 Olivia Sneed. She earned the final set tiebreaker and the match, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4).

"We stressed finishing strong and we did that today," McInerney said. "Kassidy (Jump), Sammi (Hampton) and Savannah (Slaysman) played really solid, tough tennis to pull out hard fought three-set wins.

"We improved our play today overall even in the singles matches we lost."


Doubles

On the doubles side, the story of the weekend also involved Slaysman. Paired with junior Kelly Anderson for the first time, the duo immediately clicked, going 4-0. On Sunday, they defeated preseason No. 22 Kimmy Guerin and Anna Ulyashchenko of Wake Forest, 6-3.

In addition, Saturday was a great day for doubles. McInerney mixed up her pairings all weekend, and it finally clicked on day two when ASU won four of the six matches against UT.

Leading up to the tournament, McInerney worked on improving each individual's game. Summing up the tournament, she was pleased with the progress her players made.

"All in all, it was a great weekend of tennis against three quality teams," she said. "It gives us a good barometer of where we are and what we need to improve on."

Up Next:

This weekend, for the first time this season, the Sun Devils will showcase their talents at the Whitman Tennis Center in Tempe when they host the three-day ASU Thunderbird Invitational.


Reach the reporter at jpjacqu1@asu.edu or follow @joejacquezaz on Twitter.

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