Sophomore tennis player Desirae Krawczyk sets up for a forehand return during practice in Tempe. The Sun Devils struggled at the Wolverine Invitational this weekend, with the DePaul Blue Demons sweeping them in their first match of Friday doubles. (Photo by State Press Staff)The ASU women’s tennis team concluded its play in the Wolverine Invitational Sunday with matches against DePaul and Michigan.
The Sun Devils continued to struggle in doubles play, despite switching around the pairings. In their first match of the day, the DePaul Blue Demons swept the Sun Devils, after splitting their singles match on Friday.
Coach Sheila McInerney attributed the difficulties versus DePaul to a lack of available practice time to work on a more complex doubles playing style.
“We literally had one day of doubles practice,” McInerney said. “Playing doubles is so much different than singles … In some ways it’s more strategic than singles.”
McInerney said the difficulties weren’t unexpected, but she was still disappointed after the DePaul match. She believes there will be a lot of improvements made by her young team as the season progresses.
“We didn’t play as well as we needed to play,” McInerney said. “I thought we could have played a lot better in doubles … I think (the team) learned a lot … We’ve just got to keep looking to get better."
McInerney thought her team closed out the tournament well, despite the doubles play, because of the way they competed against No. 10 Michigan in singles play. ASU took four of seven sets from the Wolverines in the last match of the tournament.
“I thought we really played well in singles,” McInerney said. “Michigan was probably the best team we faced this weekend … We upped our level of play to match the competition.”
Three of ASU’s top four players lost their matches to Michigan, but the Sun Devils swept Michigan’s bottom three.
McInerney said that speaks to the depth of the Sun Devils this season.
“(Michigan) is quite strong up top … but we came through,” McInerney said. “The beauty of it … is that you have to win four points. It doesn’t matter (how).”
ASU came into the tournament hoping to learn more about its team. McInerney said there’s not much more clarity about her doubles teams, but knows she’ll miss her anchor Jacqueline Cako.
“Our team isn’t much different … from one, two or seven (in the lineup),” McInerney said. “That’s a positive and a negative, but having Cako last year gave us a nice anchor.”
McInereny said she is yet to see an anchor like Cako on her team this season.
Tournament doubles champion: Vladutu/Kling (DePaul) and Sanders/Gleason (ND)
Tournament singles champion: Ronit Yurovsky (Michigan)
Doubles
ASU vs. DePaulVladutu/Kling (DePaul) def. Smith/Krawczyk (ASU), 8-6
Fargas/Matrea (DePaul) def. Sahagun/Jump (ASU), 8-3
Lawson/Fisher (DePaul) def. Panoho/O'Sullivan (ASU), 8-6
Singles
Michigan vs. ASUNo. 36 Ronit Yurovsky (UM) def. Stephanie Vlad (ASU), 6-2, 6-3
No. 81 Desirae Krawczyk (ASU) def. Brooke Bolender (UM), 6-2, 6-3
No. 59 Sarah Lee (UM) def. Leighann Sahagun (ASU), 6-2, 6-4
Sara Remynse (UM) def. Kassidy Jump (ASU), 6-5, 6-5 (9)
Gussie O'Sullivan (ASU) def. Amy Zhu (UM), 6-4, 6-4
Ebony Panoho (ASU) def. Kristen Dodge (UM), 6-1, 6-0
Joanna Smith (ASU) def. Annie Wierda (UM), 4-6, 6-1, 6-5 (3)
Reach the reporter at ewebeck@asu.edu or on Twitter @EWeebs
