Cal handed ASU women’s tennis its second shutout loss on Saturday at Hellman Tennis Center in Berkley, as they defeated ASU 7-0.
After losing 4-0 to No. 4 Stanford on Friday, the No. 45 Sun Devils (7-5, 2-2) looked for a different result against the No. 12 Golden Bears (9-3, 3-1). Instead, the same woes that plagued ASU against the Cardinal haunted them against Cal.
Maegan beats Hampton 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on court 2 to close out Cal's win over @sundeviltennis! #GoBears pic.twitter.com/SY69rWFB4E
— Cal Women's Tennis (@CalWomensTennis) March 18, 2017
“Doubles was similar to yesterday, as we played well enough to win, but did not finish when we had opportunities,” head coach Sheila McInerney said. “I thought we came out and were very competitive in the singles from the start, but like the doubles, we just did not pull out any of the matches. Kassidy and Sammi continue to be a great spot for us in the doubles.”
Doubles began with senior Kassidy Jump and sophomore Sammi Hampton, who won their second match in as many days, defeating senior Stephane Lin and freshman Alexis Nelson — Jump and Hampton came into the weekend ranked No. 59.
The No. 44 pairing of senior Alex Osborne and junior Nicole Fossa-Huergo played a competitive match on court one and, after Jump and Hampton won on court three, ASU needed just one more match win to clinch the doubles point. Osborne and Fossa-Huergo fell short, 7-5, against the No. 65 pairing of graduate student Maya Jansen and senior Denise Starr, squaring doubles competition at one match apiece.
Court two decided the doubles point, and for the second straight day, ASU fell short. The No. 23 pairing of sophomore Olivia Hauger and junior Karla Popovic defeated junior Kelley Anderson and freshman Savannah Slaysman, 6-3, giving Cal a 1-0 match lead.
ASU was more competitive in singles, but Cal won all six matches, and the overall match, 7-0. Starr gave Cal a 2-0 lead, defeating Anderson, 6-3, 6-3. Popovic, ranked No. 9 in the ITA singles rankings, defeated No. 97 Jump, 6-2, 6-3. Jansen clinched the match for Cal, defeating Slaysman 6-3, 7-5.
Both teams decided to finish out the remaining three matches.
Up Next:
ASU will play two matches next week at home. On Wednesday, the team welcomes UNLV to the Whiteman Tennis Center at 12:00 p.m. MST and on Friday the Sun Devils will entertain Northern Arizona at 1:30 p.m.
Reach the reporter at jpjacqu1@asu.edu or follow @joejacquezaz on Twitter.
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