It would be difficult to make spring break any more successful for the ASU women’s tennis team.
Four victories, including one over then-ranked No. 13 USC, pushed the Sun Devils’ winning streak to eight and shot their ranking up from No. 32 to No. 18 in the nation in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll.
ASU (11-2, 3-0 Pac-10) hasn’t lost since Feb. 22 and didn’t lose a single match in three of the four duals over the break.
Winning without losing a match is important as the team moves forward, ASU coach Sheila McInerney said.
It started with a 7-0 victory over Oregon (5-11, 0-4 Pac-10) and a signature 4-3 victory over now-No. 22 USC (9-6, 1-3 Pac-10) on March 13.
“One of our goals is to be undefeated at home,” ASU senior Nadia Abdala said. “We’ve played a lot of matches at home, and we’ve won. We are very happy.”
After losing the doubles point to the Women of Troy, the Sun Devils pulled off four singles wins, all of which went to the third set.
Down 3-2 with two matches remaining, the focus fell on freshman Hannah James and junior Kelcy McKenna.
James lost the first set to No. 82 USC freshman Valeria Pulido, but responded in the second set and won in a tight third set tiebreaker (3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)).
It all fell to No. 78 McKenna against No. 32 USC freshman Danielle Lao.
Another tight three-set match (7-5, 4-6, 6-4) gave McKenna the win and the Sun Devils the upset.
It was ASU’s first victory over USC since 2002.
“It was amazing,” Abdala said. “For me, I’ve been here three years and we’ve never beaten them, either at home or away. It’s a great satisfaction.”
McKenna’s weekend earned her the honor of Pac-10 Player of the Week and moved her up 24 spots in the individual rankings.
The victory against USC was followed by two 7-0 shutouts of Louisville (10-5) last Thursday and BYU (4-9) on Saturday.
Only one singles match against BYU went to a third set, where junior Micaela Hein came back from one set down to beat sophomore McCall Jones 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.
The Sun Devils have been rolling by beating the teams they are supposed to beat, but they will try to pull another pair of upsets in their last home duals against No. 11 Stanford and No. 9 California this weekend.
“You build up for everything, and beating these schools that you are supposed to beat gives you confidence,” Abdala said. “It definitely helps.”
The Pac-10 has six schools ranked in the top 25, with four of them — UCLA, Cal, Stanford, USC — in the state of California.
“We’re right there with those teams,” McInerney said. “It was important for us to go out there and knock off a USC just to gain their respect.”
Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu
