The ASU women’s tennis team grabbed its first two Pac-10 wins of the season, recording victories over both Washington State and Oregon on Friday and Saturday.
With ASU senior Kelcy McKenna and junior Michelle Brycki healthy and back in the lineup, ASU (8-2, 0-2 Pac-10) swept WSU 7-0, and beat UO 6-1.
“We needed them,” ASU coach Sheila McInerney said of McKenna and Brycki. “It was a tough week for us physically. We didn’t know if they’d be able to play this weekend. Our kids were pretty resilient.”
Doubles quickly claimed the first point for ASU against the Ducks on Saturday as McKenna and senior Micaela battled hard against UO senior Pavlina Smatova and sophomore Patricia Skowronski to take an 8-6 victory.
“The other team was serving well,” Hein said. “Even though it was really close, I knew we were going to pull it off. We have a lot of experience together and we are good in those situations.”
Brycki paired up with freshman Jacqueline Cako for the Sun Devils first doubles win over UO freshmen Rabea Stueckemann and Pascale Neubert (8-2).
It was a disappointing match for ASU senior Ashlee Brown and junior Sianna Simmons, who lost their first doubles match of the season to UO junior Trudie du Toit and sophomore Julia Metzger. Brown and Simmons are now 8-1 in doubles play.
The Cougars and the Ducks each had different styles of play and presented different challenges to ASU.
“Oregon is a bigger hitting team,” McInerney said. “Washington State’s kids get more ball returns and more grinders. Oregon’s doubles are better and they were definitely the more aggressive hitting team.”
Oregon (6-6, 0-4) proved to be a difficult in singles play for more than one Sun Devil.
ASU sophomore Hannah James took her match with UO freshman Stueckemann to three sets. James won the first set 7-5, fell in the second set 7-6 and rallied back to win the tiebreaker (7-4).
McKenna also struggled in her singles match. She beat Smatova in the first set, but had to fight to stay ahead in the second set (6-1, 7-5).
ASU freshman Jacqueline Cako extended her singles winning streak to 13-straight matches as she took victories over WSU sophomore Vasilieva (6-2, 6-4) and UO sophomore Skowronski (6-4, 6-2).
McInerney took caution with Brycki’s knee. Brycki played in doubles with Cako against WSU on Friday to take a victory over WSU junior Elisabeth Fournier and sophomore Lea Jansen (8-4).
Brycki didn’t play a singles match against WSU (8-7, 0-4), and retired from her UO singles match to give Neubert a 6-4 win.
Reach the reporter at nicole.klauss@asu.edu
