No. 27 ASU men's tennis team dropped both games in its weekend slate versus No. 14 UCLA and No. 10 USC to finish the regular season.
The Sun Devils won the doubles point in both games, but were unable to keep momentum going into singles play.
The now-No. 11 doubles pairing of juniors Dominik Kellovsky and Nathan Ponwith dropped their matchup versus No. 5 pairing of Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith from UCLA.
The pair also nearly lost versus Brandon Holt and Laurens Verboven of USC when they were down 6-5, but abandoned the game after ASU had secured the doubles point.
The pairs of sophomore Andrea Bolla/sophomore Tim Ruehl and junior Makey Rakotomalala/graduate Justin Roberts played well in both games in California.
Versus UCLA, Bolla and Ruehl won their matchup 6-4 and Rakotomalala and Roberts won 6-3 to secure the doubles point for the Devils.
Both pairs won again versus USC, with Bolla and Ruehl winning 7-6 and Rakotamalala and Roberts winning 6-3.
Against UCLA, the Devils started singles play off the wrong foot, with Kellovsky, Ponwith and Roberts dropping their matches in straight sets.
Bolla's win in straight sets kept the game alive, but Reuhl lost his game in three sets for UCLA to secure the win.
Against USC, it was more of the same, as Kellovsky, Rakotomalala and Ponwith dropped their singles matches in straight sets.
Once again, Bolla was able to keep the game alive with his win in straight sets, but Roberts lost his singles match in straight sets to complete a USC win.
The Sun Devils finished the regular season 13-12, regressing from last year's 14-9 regular season record. However, the schedule this season was made to be much tougher after the team's impressive return to collegiate tennis after an almost decade-long absence.
In the 2017-18 season, the team played 13 games against ranked teams in the regular season, compared to 17 of such games this season.
The team will head to Ojai, California to compete in the Pac-12 Championships starting Wednesday, April 24.
Reach the reporter at jhorst2@asu.edu and follow @HorseySeven on Twitter.
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Jeffrey Horst is the digital editor-in-chief of The State Press. He previously served as the publication's sports editor and worked at Cronkite News and ArizonaSports.com.
