The ASU women’s tennis team recently welcomed freshman Jacqueline Cako to the court. Cako started off her Sun Devil career on the sidelines though, forced to sit out for the first few months of the season due to an illness.
The team is excited that Cako is able to play again. In her absence, the team had only four or five players at practices, and often required the coaches to step in to hit with them.
“It’s good to have her back,” junior Sianna Simmons said. “Now we have more people practicing. We were down to four people at times.”
The tennis team is already small with eight players total. Sophomore Nicole Smith is taking a redshirt year to recover from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, and senior Kelcy McKenna student teaches during the week, so she is unable to attend practices. Without Cako, the team was down to five active players at practices.
Cako started getting back into her tennis routine slowly. She first started by getting conditioned again, working up to playing full practices. She has been focusing her attention on returning feeds.
Though she has been participating in full practices for four or five days now, Cako still has some work to do.
“She is 100 percent healthy, no question,” tennis coach Sheila McInerney said. “For her standards, she might be a little rusty, but she just needs to get back into it.”
Cako has had the opportunity to play against her teammates a few times in practice, but hasn’t played against opposing schools yet.
Cako will make her ASU debut at the ITA Regional Championships in San Diego this week.
“It feels good to be back,” Cako said. “This is the longest I have gone without playing in a tournament.”
The last tournament Cako played in was the USTA G18 National Championships in mid August.
Cako will be playing in the doubles portion of the ITA Regional Championships this week, teamed with senior Micaela Hein.
Hein usually pairs with McKenna for tournaments, but will pair up with Cako in McKenna’s absence. McKenna is unable to participate because of student teaching responsibilities.
Hein recently competed in the Riviera ITA All-American Championships as the only Sun Devil to play in the tournament. She won her first match in the qualifying round of competition, but was eliminated after falling in her second match.
Hein also fared well in doubles play at the Cal Nike Invitational last month. Hein and McKenna took second place overall in the ITA Gold doubles.
McInerney anticipates tough competition at the ITA Regional Championships and believes it will be a good opportunity for Cako to evaluate how she is playing and what she needs to work on.
“The competition will be really strong,” McInerney said. “I think all the girls are looking forward to it. They’ve had a three-week break since the last tournament, and they are itching to play another tournament.”
Reach the reporter at nklauss@asu.edu
