TEMPE – The Sun Devil women's tennis team swept No. 38 Utah, 4-0, to earn its first Pac-12 win of the season Friday at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
ASU's dominant victory over the Utes snapped the Sun Devils' five-match slide against five-straight squads ranked in the ITA top-15. For Utah, Friday's loss was just its second in eight outings.
"We've obviously had a tough stretch coming into this one, so from our standpoint, it was just nice to get a win," coach
Sheila McInerney said. "No win is an easy one and despite the score, this one wasn't easy. Utah is a good team, they're playing well this year, they beat a good Washington State team and came close to beating a top-10 team in Washington a couple of weeks ago."
During their gauntlet of top-15 opponents, the Devils took the early lead by clinching the doubles point in four of the five matches. This time, though, ASU would take the point and never look back, downing the 38th-ranked Utes in less than two hours.
ASU didn't need its second-ranked doubles duo on court one to grab the early lead, getting the job done on courts two and three with wins from Kolarova/Slaysman and No. 65 Alicea/Hampton.
The newly-ranked partnership of
Samantha Alicea and
Sammi Hampton took care of their Utah opposition, 6-1, and Kolarova/Slaysman notched a 6-3 win on two to clinch the point.
Savannah Slaysman,
Tereza Kolarova and Alicea's success would continue into singles play, as the three Devils would wrap up their respective matches in straight-sets to put the Devils back in the win column for the first time in over a month.
"I thought Savannah and Sam played really well and I thought it was good to see Tereza close it out for us," McInerney said.
On court five, Slaysman earned her first win in Pac-12 play by stifling Whitney Hekking 6-1, 6-2. After having to retire from play in her last outing, Alicea came back strong Friday and defeated her court six opponent 6-3, 6-1 to bring the Devils within one point of ending the drought.
It would be Kolarova on court three who would secure the crucial point and clinch the victory, defeating Emily Dush 6-4, 6-3. The win was Kolarova's team-leading third match-clinching win of the season.
With their first Pac-12 win in the books, the Sun Devils turn their focus to a Saturday morning matchup with a Colorado team coming off of a 4-3 win over the school down south.
"I think we just have to be ready for another tough match tomorrow," McInerney said. "We'll have to be physically and mentally prepared. It's a Pac-12 weekend, so you just have to take of business one day at a time."
*NOTE: Saturday's match with Colorado has been moved to 11 a.m. PT*
