After a successful first day at the Wolverine Invitational, the ASU women’s tennis team struggled in day two, losing all three matches it played in Saturday.
Both the Purdue Boilermakers and Michigan Wolverines took two of three doubles matches from the Sun Devils. In singles play, ASU fared no better, losing six of seven singles matches against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Coach Sheila McInerney noted a chance for revenge against Notre Dame later in the season, but it won’t be done without improvement.
“We play Notre Dame in January,” McInerney said. “That’s basically right around the corner, so we have some work to do…to get ready for them.”
One bright spot for the Sun Devils has been the play of sophomore Stephanie Vlad. She hasn’t lost a singles match in the Wolverine Invitational, beating Notre Dame No. 35 Britney Sanders in three sets.
“(Vlad has) done well,” McInerney said. “It was a tough one today with a tie breaker in the final set…she competed really well today.”
Vlad’s only loss of the tournament thus far has come in doubles, when she and junior Joanna Smith lost to Michigan’s No. 3 doubles team.
McInerney attributed the struggles on Saturday to facing better competition and playing doubles for the first time this season.
“The competition was really good,” McInerney said. “I thought we competed pretty well in doubles…It was the first time we played (against Purdue).”
Despite not having much practice playing doubles going into it, McInerney had hoped the way she and associate head coach Clint Letcher coached doubles would pay off.
“We try to teach doubles in general that no matter who you play, it’s about putting the ball in the right spot and doing things like that,” McInerney said.
As she expected to going in, McInerney will switch up the doubles teams for ASU’s match against DePaul Sunday. Vlad will sit out the match because of her unusually long one Saturday.
Sophomore Desirae Krawczyk will team up with Smith as ASU’s No. 1 team, while freshman Kassidy Jump and junior Leighann Sahagun will continue to be ASU’s No. 2. ASU’s two Australians, freshman Gussie O’Sullivan and sophomore Ebony Panaho, will be ASU’s No. 3 doubles team.
ASU will begin play at 9:30 a.m. EDT against DePaul in doubles. The Sun Devils will finish the tournament with a singles match against the host, Michigan.
Doubles
ASU vs. PurdueNo. 12 Schmidt/Kapitany (Purdue) def. Smith/Sahagun (ASU), 8-5
Xepoleas/Vidal (Purdue) def. O'Sullivan/Krawczyk (ASU), 8-4
Panoho/Vlad (ASU) def. Robinson/Davila (Purdue), 8-6
Michigan vs. ASU
Bektas/Yurovsky (U-M) def. Krawczyk/O'Sullivan (ASU), 8-2
Sahagun/Jump (ASU) def. Bolender/Lee (U-M), 8-4
Remynse/Zhu (U-M) def. Vlad/Smith (ASU), 8-
Dodge/Wierda (U-M) def. Panoho/Hyman (ASU/Tulane), 8-4
Singles
ASU vs. Notre Dame
Stephanie Vlad (ASU) def. No. 35 Britney Sanders (ND), 5-6 (1), 6-3, 6-5 (4)
No. 87 Quinn Gleason (ND) def. No. 81 Desirae Krawczyk (ASU), 6-5 (4), 6-4
Monica Robinson (ND) def. Leighann Sahagun (ASU), 6-2, 6-2
No. 117 Jennifer Kellner (ND) def. Kassidy Jump (ASU), 6-5, 4-6, 6-1
Mary Closs (ND) def. Gussie O'Sullivan (ASU), 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
Jane Fennelly (ND) def. Ebony Panoho (ASU), 4-6, 6-5, 6-1
Julie Vrabel (ND) def. Joanna Smith (ASU), 6-2, 6-5 (5)
Reach the reporter at ewebeck@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @EWeebs
