After three long weeks of practice, the ASU women’s tennis team will finally have the opportunity to play against some top NCAA competition.
The Sun Devils travel to San Diego to compete in the ITA Regional Championships on Thursday. The tournament will be held at the Barnes Tennis Center.
The tournament starts Thursday and runs through Monday, Oct. 25. The Sun Devils will compete in the Southwest Regional. Only six Sun Devils will compete in singles and doubles play at the tournament this week.
ASU tennis coach Sheila McInerney expects the competition to be tough at the event hosted by San Diego State, and the Sun Devils will be taking on teams they haven’t seen this year.
“It’s a good field with Arizona and Pepperdine, but any time you’ve got SDSU and UCLA in the tournament, they would be the teams to beat [and] the individuals to beat,” McInerney said.
For doubles matches, McInerney has shuffled the usual pairings.
Freshman Jacqueline Cako will make her ASU debut after missing the early season being sick. She will be paired with senior Micaela Hein. Hein usually plays with senior Kelcy McKenna, but McKenna is not participating in the tournament.
The other doubles duos pair junior Sianna Simmons with sophomore Hannah James and junior Michelle Brycki with senior Ashlee Brown.
Brycki and Brown haven’t played much in doubles together, but Brycki is looking forward to the opportunity.
“I think we’ve had a good three weeks of practice after the Cal Nike [Invitational],” Brycki said. “We’ve been playing well and having fun in practice. I’m ready and everyone else is ready.”
At the Cal Nike event in Berkely, Calif., the Sun Devils performed beyond expectations. McKenna won the entire tournament in singles play.
This week’s tournament will provide an opportunity for the Sun Devils to improve their doubles play as see how the new pairings work.
“Doubles is about doing the basics, serving well and returning well,” McInerney said. “Right now that’s one of the things we need to improve on. We’re probably giving away too many points missing returns.”
Last year the Sun Devils competed in the tournament, but did not make it to the finals. They are hoping to advance to a higher round this year.
The champions from the singles and doubles matches of the NCAA Division I USTA/ITA Regional Championships advance to the 2010 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships on Nov. 4 – 7 at Columbia University in Flushing, N.Y.
In first round play Thursday, Simmons is slated to take on 13th-seeded UA junior Sarah Landsman, who was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention last season. Simmons does not have to play in the round of 128 due to a bye.
Hein and James also have first round byes and enter the tournament seeded seventh and 15th, respectively. Cako also gets to skip the first round, which will be played early Thursday.
Brown will take on Southern California freshman Hayley Miller and Brycki will match up with Hawaii junior Aglae Van den Bergh.
In doubles action Cako and Hein have first round byes. Brown and Brycki will take on the Hawaii duo of junior Barbara Pinterova and sophomore Katarina Poljakova. If Brown and Brycki win the match, they will compete against freshman Brooke Schweyer and senior Hayley Young from UC Irvine in the second round.
In their first doubles match, James and Simmons will take on the Long Beach State pair of senior Deborah Armstrong and junior Anais Dallara.
A victory for James and Simmons will pit them against junior Noelle Hickey and freshman Pam Montez of UCLA in the second round.
If the Sun Devils do not win their first round, they will have an opportunity to compete in a consolation draw, which starts Friday.
Reach the reporter at nklauss@asu.edu
