Stanford, Calif. -- In just their second conference loss of the season, the No. 19 Arizona State Sun Devils (16-4; Pac-12 3-2) women's tennis team fell to the No. 5 Stanford Cardinal 6-1 on Sunday afternoon on the campus of Stanford University.
Just one Sun Devil, sophomore Desirae Krawczyk, was able to pick up a victory in the match against the always solid Stanford lineup. Krawczyk's win on the No. 2 singles court brought her season total to seventeen wins, with just one loss so far coming against Cal the day prior.
"Despite the 6-1 score I felt we played and competed well today," Arizona State head coach Sheila McInerney said. "Stanford was the better team but we made them work, especially with the top three singles matches."
Those top three singles, which yielded the sole match point for Arizona State, were the closest of the entire day excluding a one point doubles match that was abandoned on court number three.
Stanford was able to pick up the doubles point and gain the advantage on the visiting Sun Devils after winning on doubles courts No. 1 and 2.
On singles court No. 1, Kristie Ahn defeated Stephanie Vlad in two sets 6-3, 6-4, while Carol Zhao defeated Kassidy Jump 7-5, 6-3 on the No. 3 singles court.
"Stephanie (Vlad) and Kassidy (Jump) aslo played well despite losing," McInerney said.
Krawczyk held her own against Krista Hardebeck, falling in the first set 3-6, but then coming back in the second 6-4 and winning the tiebreak 10-5.
"It was nice for Desirae to get the win over Hardebeck who is ranked in the top-40 players in the nation, McInerney said. Desirae (Krawczyk) battled back from a 6-3, 3-0 hole so that win was really good for her."
Rounding out the back half, Stanford picked up three more points with wins on courts four, five and six.
With just their fourth loss of the season now on-board, the Arizona State will regroup in Tempe and prepare to host Colorado and Utah on Friday and Saturday at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe, Ariz. The match-up against Utah will be available live on Pac-12 networks -- keep your eyes on thesundevils.com in the coming days for more information on that.
"Hopefully we can build on some good results and be ready to go for this upcoming weekend," McInerney added.
No. 5 Stanford 5 :: No. 19 Arizona State 1
Stanford, Calif.
3/30/14
11:00 a.m. PDT
DOUBLES
1. Kristie Ahn/Carol Zhao (STAN) def. Desirae Krawczyk/Alexandra Osborne (ASU) 8-0
2. Taylor Davidson/Ellen Tsay (STAN) def. Kassidy Jump/Leighann Sahagun (ASU) 8-2
3. Caroline Doyle/Krista Hardebeck (STAN) def. Ebony Panoho/Stephanie Vlad (ASU) 6-5
SINGLES
1. Kristie Ahn (STAN) def. Stephanie Vlad (ASU) 6-3, 6-4
2. Desirae Krawczyk (ASU) def. Krista Hardebeck (STAN) 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5)
3. Carol Zhao (STAN) def. Kassidy Jump (ASU) 7-5, 6-3
4. Taylor Davidson (STAN) def. Leighann Sahagun (ASU) 6-3, 6-2
5. Ellen Tsay (STAN) def. Ebony Panoho (ASU) 6-1, 6-4
6. Caroline Doyle (STAN) def. Joanna Smith (ASU) 6-1, 6-1
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