The Arizona Wildcats held their annual senior day Saturday in Tucson, but it was ASU tennis who celebrated in the latest edition of the Territorial Cup.
The No. 22 Sun Devils closed out their regular season schedule with a 7-0 sweep of in-state rival Arizona. it was the second straight season ASU has beaten its neighbor from down south, and third time in the last four years.
"We knew coming into the match that this was one we should win," head coach Sheila McInerney said in a phone call. "But it's never easy to do that against your rival on the road, so it's a good feeling."
Although ASU would dominate for most of the match, it didn't start that way. In doubles, ASU's 18th ranked duo of senior Ebony Panoho and junior Alexandra Osborne went down on court number one in the first result of the day. It was just the third loss this spring for the Sun Devils' top paring, and first since March 28th.
"They just didn't play their best tennis to start off, but it was great to see the rest of the team pick them up to put us in a really good spot getting that first point," McInerney said.
ASU would do just that as it grabbed wins on courts two and three to earn the first point. It was nothing new for the Sun Devils, who took 19 of 22 possible doubles points this season.
ASU kept the momentum from doubles going as the team took four of the six singles matches in straight sets. Junior Kassidy Jump was the first off on court two with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Arizona's Shayne Austin, which snapped a personal four game losing streak for Jump.
Freshman Sammi Hampton, senior Stephanie Vlad and junior Gussie O'Sullivan each followed with straight set victories of their own to clinch the team competition for the Sun Devils.
"We really got off to a great start in singles," McInerney said. "So add that with the doubles point and you could kind of see where the match was going. It's better for my stress level that way."
While the team competition had already been decided, a couple Sun Devils still had something to play for. Senior Desirae Krawczyk faced her former high school teammate Lauren Marker for the final time in the college ranks. After splitting the first two sets, Krawczyk pulled away in a ten-set tie breaker, 10-2, on court one.
With the win, Krawcyzk improved to 3-0 against Marker for her career at ASU.
After dropping her match in doubles play, Panoho found herself in a third-set on court number three with Devin Chypyha of Arizona. In the final match of the afternoon, Panoho would take the final set, 6-1, to complete the 7-0 sweep for the Sun Devils.
ASU wraps up conference play at 8-2, sitting at 17-5 overall. The team now gets a few days off before leaving Wednesday for the Pac-12 tournament in Ojai, CA.
Reach the reporter at mfaye@assu.edu or follow @mattGfaye on Twitter.
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