The ASU women's tennis team suffered a 5-2 loss after a tough matchup against Duke Thursday afternoon in Tempe.
The No. 5 Blue Devils (11-2, 2-0 ACC) started the dual by sweeping the Sun Devils in doubles, winning all three matches.
ASU junior Sianna Simmons and senior Ashlee Brown were the first pair to drop their match to Duke sophomore Mary Clayton and junior Monica Gorny (8-3), followed by the ASU senior duo of Micaela Hein and Kelcy McKenna, who fell to Blue Devil senior Ellah Nze and freshman Rachel Kahan (8-6).
ASU coach Sheila McInerney was disappointed with the loss, but said the girls put up a good fight.
“That’s tennis,” McInerney said. “It was tough. We played well and we had some chances, but we didn’t quite come through.”
The Sun Devils (8-3, 2-0 Pac-10) put up a fight against the Blue Devils in singles play, taking two matches to three sets, and one to a tiebreaker.
“Kelcy [McKenna] and Jacqueline [Cako] had two good wins today,” McInerney said. “The rest had some tough losses. We can’t be faint of heart. We just have to be ready for Cal on Saturday.”
In singles play, McKenna took on No. 74 Nze. McKenna won 6-1 in the first set, fell 6-3 in the second and battled back from behind to win the third set 6-3.
“Nze was playing really well, so I was just trying to make the points last long enough to cause an unforced error,” McKenna said. “She’s a really good player. I played her my sophomore year at the NCAAs and lost, so it was nice to play her again.”
In singles play, Cako easily defeated her opponent, Fahoum, to take a 6-1, 6-0 victory, increasing her singles win streak to 14.
James also took her match to three sets. She lost the first set 6-1, won the second set 6-3 and fell in the third set 6-2 to senior Elizabeth Plotkin.
Hein lost her first set 7-6, rallied back to win 6-4 and fell in the tiebreaker to Duke senior Reka Zsilinskszka (10-8).
The Sun Devils will need to rebound from this loss quickly before they compete against No. 7 California on Saturday.
“Today was a tough day,” McKenna said. “We had a lot of people play great in singles, in long matches. Cal is a great team and we’re looking forward to the competition.”
Cal (10-2, 2-0 Pac-10) is coming off a recent 5-2 loss to Stanford.
Cal features several ranked players including No. 4 Cal junior Jana Juricova, No. 38 Tayler Davis and No. 41 Mari Andersson.
Reach the reporter at nicole.klauss@asu.edu
