After two months away from competition, No. 22 ASU women’s tennis broke serve on the 2017 regular season over the holiday weekend at the Michigan Invitational in Ann Arbor.
The Sun Devils' final fall competition was sixty days ago and during the first practice of the new year head coach Sheila McInerney wanted to prepare her team for tough competition.
Sunny skies and 68 degrees. Great way to start the first practice of the New Year!!! Go Devils!!! Forks Up!!! pic.twitter.com/YTplsXV4Nz
— Sheila McInerney (@asu10s_coachmac) January 6, 2017
“Michigan is a top-10 team, Tennessee is a lot like us — we played them in the fall and it was a really close match — and we don't know too much about DePaul, but (head coach) Mark Ardizzone always has a good team,” McInerney said.
This season, the Sun Devils face four programs ranked inside the ITA preseason top 25, including No. 4 Stanford and No. 7 Ohio State.
“The beauty of it is you have all three of your doubles pairs out there, which you would in a dual match, and all six of your singles players,” McInerney said. “Even though you're not playing the same team each day, you can simulate how you would have done if it was a dual match."
The tournament did not feature team scoring, but served as a final tune-up for dual-match play.
Doubles
Since playing together for the first time at the Tennessee Fall Invitational in October, it became evident that junior Kelly Anderson and freshman Savannah Slaysman complement each other’s game in doubles.
Coming into this weekend as the No. 36 doubles team, Anderson and Slaysman won their first two matches on Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday the duo faced No. 4 Kate Fahey and Alex Najarian of Michigan. Up four games to three, Fahey and Najarian broke serve for a 5-3 lead.
Back on serve, Fahey sealed the match with a powerful ace. The Wolverines duo was too much for Anderson and Slaysman, but playing one of the best doubles pairs in the nation heading into dual-match will add experience. Fahey and Najarian won the doubles title.
Senior Kassidy Jump and sophomore Sammi Hampton seemed to never miss a beat since the break: They recorded a 3-0 record and won 18 of 23 games.
Senior Alexandra Osborne and junior Nicole-Fossa Huergo capped off a perfect tournament with an upset of Minor and Hook, 7-5. If one thing is clear about the state of this team it's this: all three doubles teams are in tip-top form.
Singles
After splitting six singles matches against Tennessee on Saturday, ASU was served a wake-up call on Sunday against Michigan.
Anderson was a bright side, earning an upset of No. 78 Chiara Lommer in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Baylor transfer finished the weekend with an undefeated record and will be an integral part of the team’s singles lineup.
On day two sophomore Sammi Hampton tied for No. 49, was on the short end of a marquee matchup against No. 20 Fahey, who claimed the singles title on Monday. Hampton bounced back with a win on Monday in straight sets over Patricia Lancranjan of DePaul, claiming the final set in a tiebreak, 7-6 (3).
In the preseason rankings, sophomore @SammiHampster makes her first career appearance in singles in a tie at No. 49! pic.twitter.com/U87Pv202cw
— Sun Devil Tennis (@sundeviltennis) January 6, 2017
Senior Kassidy Jump ended the preseason by claiming the Thunderbird Invitational title, but she took a step back this weekend. Jump, ranked No. 63, did not win a match. In her first match against No. 64 Brittany Lindl, Jump cruised in the first set, 6-2, but could not keep momentum, losing the second set, 3-6 and a hard-fought deciding set, 5-7.
Freshman Savannah Slaysman won all of her matches, including an impressive 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (3) defeat of Ruder-Hook on Sunday.
Senior Gussie O’Sullivan and Fossa-Huergo recorded one win, while Osborne won all three of her matches on court seven.
“Overall, it was a valuable weekend and should help us for the start of the dual meet season next week," McInerney said.
Up Next:
On Friday, ASU hosts Northern Arizona University, their first opponent of the 2017 dual-match season. The action gets started from the Whiteman Tennis Center at 1pm.
Correction: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story misidentified head coach Sheila McInerney. This article has been updated to correctly identify her.
Reach the reporter at jpjacqu1@asu.edu or follow @joejacquezaz on Twitter.
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