April 1, 2006
Los Angeles, Calif. - The No. 13 Arizona State Sun Devils were unable to keep pace with the No. 3 USC Trojans, falling 5-2 at the Marks Tennis Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday. After winning the doubles point, the Sun Devils (10-6) fell in five of six singles matches and lost for the second straight match. They now drop to 1-2 in the Pac-10 Conference standings and 0-2 against the Trojans this season.
The Sun Devils came out strong in the doubles competition, winning two of three matches to score the point. The number one doubles team of Kady Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Roxanne Clarke (Cape Town, South Africa), ranked No. 31 by the ITA, defeated USC's No. 36 ranked team of Luana Magnani and Lindsey Nelson, 8-2. A 8-5 loss by Wendy Pilecka (Pribram, Czech Republic) and Laila Abdala (San Diego, Calif.) in the third flight set up the clinching match. Sabrina Capannolo (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Jessica Leitch (Dallas, Texas) defeated Carine Vermeulen and Dianne Matias, 8-5, in the second spot to win doubles for the Devils.
The Devils lost the first five positions in the singles competition en route to a dual match defeat by the Trojans, 5-2. No. 7 Amanda Fink defeated ASU's Capannolo (No. 116) in flight one, 6-0, 6-4. No. 86 Clarke saw her five-match win streak snapped, as she fell to No. 49 Magnani (6-1, 6-4). Kady Pooler was able to force a third set against No. 24 Dianne Matias, but fell late in the third set (6-3, 2-6, 7-5) enabling the Trojans to clinch the match with a 6-1, 6-2 victory by Anastasiu over Rankin in the fourth flight. Leitch also fell for the Devils, in the fifth flight, to Vermeulen (7-6, 6-2). Laila Abdala earned the lone singles point for the Sun Devils, defeating Judy DeVera in three sets (6-3, 4-6, 7-6).
The Sun Devils will stay on the road next weekend as they travel north to the state of Washington for two matches. They face the WSU Cougars on Friday and the Washington Huskies on Saturday in a pair of Pac-10 Conference dual matches.