The ASU women's tennis team continued its perfect season, now 5-0, this weekend, shutting out No. 32 Florida International on Friday, and followed it up with another shutout against Houston on Sunday.
ASU coach Sheila McInerney said she was happy with the way her team performed.
"Beating Florida International the way we did was great," McInerney said. "We knew Houston was not as good, and we went out there and took care of business. We showed them respect by beating them as bad as possible."
ASU's lone loss against FIU came in doubles, as sisters Nadia and Laila Abdala fell to Liset Brito and Priscilla Castillo, 4-8.
The loss was the second of the season for ASU's 11th-ranked doubles team.
"There are a lot of small things we need to work on," Nadia Abdala said. "My sister played amazing. I had a bad day."
Although ASU's top doubles team fell, the Sun Devils were still confident.
"We were nervous coming into the match, but we knew we'd win," Abdala said. "We dominated, and now we're more confident against ranked teams."
The Sun Devils kept up the high level of play on Sunday as they swept the doubles and singles matches against Houston, winning every set.
Abdala sat out Sunday because of NCAA limitations on the number of tournaments an individual can play.
Filling in at the top spot was freshman Kelcy McKenna, who fell behind in the first set 1-4 to Houston's Lucy Forward, before rallying to a 6-4 victory.
McKenna then never looked back, taking a 3-0 lead and winning nine straight points including two aces. She won the second set, 6-2.
"She [Forward] was playing really good in the first set," McKenna said. "She hit good serves and ground strokes, but I got into a better rhythm in the second set."
Freshmen Ashlee Brown and Lauren Megale both won their matches 6-0, 6-1, while seniors Jessica Leithch and Wendy Pilecka won their singles matches 6-1, 6-1.
Junior Laila Abdala rounded out the singles matches with a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
McInerney said the match against Houston helped her team gain experience.
"We have two wins over ranked opponents but the schedule gets tougher," McInerney said.
The Sun Devils next match is Saturday against Long Beach State. The following week ASU hosts UCLA in the Pac-10 opener.
Men successful in the South
The ASU men's tennis went 2-0 in Auburn, Ala., as it shut out Southern Mississippi 7-0 on Saturday and beat No. 31 Auburn 4-3 on Sunday.
The victory versus Auburn was ASU's first win over a ranked opponent.
Against Southern Mississippi, Juan Carlos Rebaza, Andres Arango, Matt Brooklyn and John Nanonsky II all won their matches in straight sets.
Junior Wes Miller lost his first set 6-7 (4) but bounced back to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-2.
ASU junior T.J. Bellama was involved in match of the day.
The match went to tie breakers in all three sets, but Bellama pulled out the win, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (10), 7-6 (10).
The Sun Devils' match against Auburn was more competitive as ASU narrowly escaped with a victory.
Auburn earned the point for doubles, winning two of three matches, but ASU came back in singles winning four of the six matches.
Bellama again pulled off a marathon, three-set victory. He fell behind by losing the first set 6-7 (5-7) and then rallied to take the next two sets 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-2) to remain undefeated on the season.
Along with Bellama, Arango and Nanonsky II also remained undefeated by winning three set matches.
Brooklyn, who guaranteed ASU would win this weekend, also stayed unbeaten as he won in the top singles match, 7-5, 6-2.
Reach the reporter at: todonnel@asu.edu.
