The ASU women’s tennis team returns to the court after a two-week break from matches. But ASU will be down a Sun Devil.
ASU junior Michelle Brycki will sit on the sidelines as the No. 28 Sun Devils travel to Texas to take on No. 47 University of South Florida on Saturday and Texas on Sunday.
Brycki’s knee has been swollen since the last match against Pacific on Feb. 13.
“Michelle’s (Brycki) knee hasn’t responded as well as we wanted,” ASU coach Sheila McInerney said. “We’re doing aggressive rehab. It’s just a matter of getting the swelling down.”
Brycki will remain in Tempe to work on healing her knee.
“I’m working on getting the swelling down and keeping my strength up,” Brycki said.
According to McInerney, the Sun Devils need to keep everyone else healthy because the Sun Devils have a lot of tough competition lined up, with Pac-10 play starting after this weekend’s competition.
ASU senior Kelcy McKenna was nursing a shoulder injury. But she is now healed up and fit to play, McInerney said.
“We’re down to six, and we have to have six healthy for our matches,” McInerney said.
The Sun Devils (5-1) have had a successful start to their season, taking sweeping wins over Iowa State, UC Davis, Pacific and South Carolina.
ASU will have to shake the rust off from not playing for two weeks and be ready to play as soon as they step onto the court.
“I think everybody is a challenge,” McInerney said. “South Florida has mostly international kids there, and they’re well coached. They will be pretty strong.”
Even though both of the weekend’s opponents are currently struggling, McInerney expects the competition to be the toughest ASU have seen in their season thus far.
“We play Texas at home,” McInerney said. “They’re a good team, really deep. We’ve got a good rivalry with them and we play them every year.”
Texas (2-3) will face USF on Friday before matching up with the Sun Devils Sunday morning. The Longhorns’ only wins this season were a 6-1 victory over Princeton on Jan. 30 and a 7-0 victory over Rice University on Jan. 22.
South Florida (2-5) was in the middle of a five-match losing streak before a 6-1 win over the University of Central Florida on Wednesday.
In Brycki’s absence, McInerney plans to pair McKenna with sophomore Hannah James in doubles play. Freshman Jacqueline Cako and senior Micaela Hein will partner up, while senior Ashlee Brown and junior Sianna Simmons team up.
Brown and Simmons have moved up in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association doubles rankings to No. 31 and are currently undefeated with six straight wins.
Reach the reporter at nicole.klauss@asu.edu
