April 7, 2006
Pullman, Wash. - The No. 16 Arizona State women's tennis team got back to its winning ways, defeating the Washington State Cougars, 7-0, on the road in Pullman, Wash. on Friday afternoon. It was the sixth 7-0 sweep of the season for the Sun Devils (11-6) and improved their record to 2-2 in the Pac-10 Conference standings.
The Sun Devils earned the doubles point after recording victories in the second and third flights. Sabrina Capannolo (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Jessica Leitch (Dallas, Texas) earned an 8-3 victory over Ekaterina Burduli and Marjolein van de Van in the second flight. In the third spot, Wendy Pilecka (Pribram, Czech Republic) and Rebecca Rankin (Purley, England) also recorded an 8-3 victory over Aleksandra Cekic and Bianca Selaru. In a rare occurrence, the No. 43 ranked team of Kady Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Roxanne Clarke (Cape Town, South Africa) fell to unranked Maria Ring and Amy Toth in a closely contested 8-7 match after the dual match point had already been decided.
The Devils had a top-to-bottom victory in singles competition, winning all six flights in straight sets. No. 116 Capannolo had a victory in the first flight, upsetting No. 93 Burdul, 6-4, 6-3. No. 59 Clarke rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Toth and Pooler defeated Cekic, 6-4, 6-4, to round out the top half of the order. Rankin took care of business quickly in the fourth flight, defeating van de Ven, 6-0, 6-2. Leitch also had an easy time against Selaru, recording a 6-2, 6-0 victory. Freshman Laila Abdala (San Diego, Calif.) recorded a win in the sixth flight with a 6-3, 6-3 score over Aleksandra Stefanova.
The Sun Devils wrap up their road trip with a match against the Washington Huskies on Saturday afternoon in Seattle, before returning next week to play their final three matches of the season in Arizona.