This week, ASU men's tennis took on Baylor, Idaho and Texas Tech while the women's team fell to both No. 20 USC and No. 14 UCLA.
Men's tennis
The week started off peculiarly for ASU men's tennis, whose game against Oklahoma on March 6 was canceled due to "non-covid-related illnesses."
However, the team got right back to action on Wednesday against Baylor where the team lost 4-3 despite having three upsets on the day.
"We knew it was going to be a really tough test," head coach Matt Hill said. "Proud of the guys for taking them to the limit."
Two of the upsets in doubles, No. 59 Fabien Salle and Max McKennon upset No. 18 Finn Bass and Sven Lah 7-5, while unranked Murphy Cassone and Jacob Bullard beat No. 80 Matias Soto and Juampi Mazzuchi 6-2. The final upset was No. 94 Salle who beat No. 27 Soto in singles.
ASU is finishing the weekend in the ASU Spring Break Tournament, where the team already pummeled Idaho 4-0 on Friday in the first round.
The team continued the trend on Saturday when it knocked off Texas Tech 4-1 to advance to the final where the team will take on the Princeton Tigers Sunday.
"We are just starting to play better and better," Hill said after the win against Texas Tech. "Really good day for us."
Women’s tennis
The Sun Devils dropped back-to-back West Coast matches on Friday and Saturday versus No. 20 USC and No. 14 UCLA, both with scores of 4-1.
ASU had no answer for red-hot USC, which is riding a four-game winning streak. USC (10-7) took doubles while handing senior Domenika Turkovic and freshman Patricija Spaka their first doubles loss of the season.
Senior Cali Jankowski extended her winning streak in singles by cleaning up in two sets, 6-4 and 6-4. Jankowski has won four straight singles matches and has won three of her last four doubles with sophomore Natasha Hill after the duo lost to UCLA on Saturday.
The Sun Devils lost the doubles point again to the Bruins (8-3) despite an upset win for Turkovic and Spaka over Ava Catanzarite and Abbey Forbes, the No. 23 ranked duo in the country.
ASU could not come back against UCLA in singles besides Spaka, who picked up her eleventh straight singles win as she extended her undefeated solo play.
ASU's conference road trip continues this week as the team takes on Oregon in Eugene on Sunday.
Editor's note: An earlier photo caption mis-identified the tennis pair in the photo as Jacob Bullard and Murphy Cassone. The caption was updated on March 30, 2022 at 7:35 p.m. with the correct names.
Reach the reporters at vdeange1@asu.edu and dstipano@asu.edu and follow @vdeangelis2024 and @dstipanovichh on Twitter.
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Vincent Deangelis is a full-time reporter for the sports department at The State Press. He has previously worked for Arizona PBS and AZPreps365.com.
