The No. 24 ASU tennis team (12-4, 3-1) fell to No. 13 Stanford Friday in Tempe.
The loss marks the first conference loss of the dual-match season for the team.
“I thought we played well in the doubles,” head coach Sheila McInerney said. “We certainly had some chances.”
The Sun Devils battled fiercely during the doubles half of the match, nearly earning the point from the session.
The team’s No. 3 pairing of junior Ebony Panoho and sophomore Alex Osborne defeated Stanford’s duo of juniors Krista Hardebeck and Lindsey Kostas handily, 8-2.
It wasn’t enough though, as Stanford managed to win the other two doubles matches, gaining the one-point advantage heading into singles play.
From there, the very talented Cardinal singles lineup — which features five players currently ranked in the top-100 players in the country — proved to be too much for the Sun Devils.
Stanford nearly swept ASU, but a 7-5, 6-4 victory for Panoho over Kostas prevented it, notching the lone Sun Devils point today in their 1-6 loss.
“We just better come ready to play,” McInerney said of her team’s match with No. California Saturday. “Cal’s beaten Stanford already this year, and I have the utmost respect for Stanford, as I do Cal. They’re a tough team all the way through the lineup.”
ASU’s next match will be Saturday when it takes on No. 3 California at 11 a.m. in Tempe.
Today’s scores:
Singles
1. Carol Zhao (STAN) def. Desirae Krawczyk (ASU) — 7-6, 1-6
2. Taylor Davidson (STAN) def. Stephanie Vlad (ASU) — 4-6, 2-6
3. Caroline Doyle (STAN) def. Kassidy Jump (ASU) — 2-6, 0-6
4. Krista Hardebeck (STAN) def. Joanna Smith (ASU) — 3-6, 3-6
5. Ellen Tsay (STAN) def. Leighann Sahagun (ASU) — 1-6, 3-6
6. Ebony Panoho (ASU) def. Lindsey Kostas (STAN) — 7-5, 6-4
Doubles
1. Zhao/Davidson (STAN) def. Krawczyk/Vlad (ASU) — 7-8
2. Doyle/Tsay (STAN) def. Smith/Jump (ASU) — 5-8
3. Panoho/Osborne (ASU) def. Hardebeck/Kostas — 8-2
Reach the reporter at kajone31@asu.edu or follow @kaelenjones on Twitter.
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