LOS ANGELES, Calif. – No. 27/21 Sun Devil men's tennis takes their hot streak to Los Angeles, looking to extend their six-match win streak against No. 14 UCLA and No. 10 USC on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Along with the team win streak, seven of the nine Sun Devils on the roster are on singles win streaks of two or more, spearheaded by
Justin Roberts' six-match streak.
"We've got some momentum and we're playing with confidence," coach
Matt Hill said. "We didn't have a nice stretch of matches to get our feet under us early in the season, and now I feel like we're getting that and seeing that in matches."
ASU returns to action after just one match last weekend, sweeping Utah 4-0 for their seventh bagel of the season. The match secured a perfect 7-0 home record for the Sun Devils in their second season since reinstatement, a huge improvement over their 5-6 record in Tempe in 2018.
"I've been impressed with the guys on a day-to-day basis because you can tell they're focused and excited," Hill said. "Everybody is looking sharp, so we're excited for the weekend ahead."
Since upsetting No. 13 Michigan in the middle of March, the Sun Devils have gone on a 9-3 run, taking wins over three opponents ranked by the ITA. Two of the three have been in conference play to catapult ASU to a 4-2 conference record after starting off Pac-12 play 0-2.
"Our goal is always to be one of the best teams in the Pac-12, but we know how difficult the conference is and how good the schools are," Hill said. "It's not easy to do that, so we're really pleased with the results of the past couple weeks. We put in some good work against strong teams and didn't really drop too many matches or too many sets even against these Pac-12 schools."
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the Sun Devils earned a No. 27 nod in the latest ranking released on Tuesday by the ITA while the USTA put ASU at No. 23.
Nathan Ponwith/
Dominik Kellovsky also maintined their ranking, hitting the list at No. 11. The tandem have also been on a streak as of late, taking six-straight while going 8-2 in their last 10 decisions.
Andrea Bolla/
Tim Ruehl have also contributed major wins in doubles play for ASU to the tune of nine wins in their last 10 matches and a seven-match win streak. The duo have dominated the game as a tandem, doing their part to lead ASU to secure 17 doubles points through 23 matches.
"It's huge to be able to go into the match and feel good about doubles on all three courts," Hill said. "We've felt all year long that we have a high level of trust in all courts to be able to be successful against anybody in the country, and they continue to show that time and time again. It gives us a ton of confidence, and getting that first point against the best teams in the country is crucial."
History between the Bruins and Sun Devils dates back to last season when ASU fought, but eventually fell to then-No. 2 UCLA 4-2. In the 2018 matchup, ASU secured the doubles point and
Michael Geerts added a huge upset over then-No. 1 Martin Redlicki, but that's all the Sun Devils would get in the matchup.
"UCLA is really top heavy with some really good players up top in singles and a really good one doubles as well," Hill said. "We put ourselves in really good position to win and we just didn't get over the hump last year, but we were way more inexperienced then and we have way more depth this year."
The Sun Devils have already faced off against USC this season, dropping their matchup with the Trojans at the Oracle Collegiate Challenge in Indian Wells, 4-0. They look to redeem themselves in the City of Angels this time around after suffering two-straight sweeps at the hands of the Trojans dating back to last season.
"To be fair, I thought that was one of our weaker matches of the year without a doubt," Hill said. "We didn't really get our feet into that match for whatever reason, but I definitely think Saturday's match will be really different. Our level of play is certainly higher this time around as we were just starting to turn a corner when we bumped into them at Indian Wells the first time around."
First serve with both L.A. schools will be at 3 p.m., with ASU facing off against UCLA on Friday and USC on Saturday. Fans can keep up with the action all season long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
