In an afternoon of Pac-12 Conference play, the No. 19 Arizona State Sun Devils women's tennis team fell to the USC, 4-2, on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, Calif.
"Despite today's loss we can take a lot of positives from this match," ASU Head Coach Sheila McInerney said. "I was pleased with how aggressive we played, and we played to win but just came up a little bit short today."
To start the afternoon, the doubles point was quickly given to USC after the Women of Troy were able to capture wins on the second and third courts in two identical scores, 8-2.
Alexandra Osborne and Stephanie Vlad fell to Zoe Katz and Gabriella DiSimone on the third court to give USC the early 1-0 doubles advantage, while Kassidy Jump and Joanna Smith were unable to capture a victory on the second court giving USC the overall doubles point.
"We struggled a bit in the doubles, but I was really pleased with the way we came out and competed in the singles," McInerney said.
Singles proved just as tough for Arizona State, but the Sun Devils did have a few bright spots. No. 49 Desirae Krawczyk picked up yet another win on the No 2 singles court, topping Brynn Boren 6-1, 6-2. Freshman Kassidy Jump also picked up a win on the No. 3 court, defeating Kaitlyn Christian in two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Two victories that proved important to individual player development, despite the overall loss.
"Desirae and Kassidy played really well and both came away with nice victories over very good experienced players," McInerney said.
However, USC proved to be too much for Arizona State down the stretch, as the home-town team was able to pick up wins on the first, fourth and fifth courts to earn three singles points and the overall team victory.
Arizona State faces an even tougher No. 2 UCLA tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
"Hopefully we can learn from this for tomorrow," McInerney added.
#13 USC 4, #19 Arizona State 2 April 11, 2014 - Marks Stadium (Los Angeles, Calif.) DOUBLES (1) Christian/Scandalis (USC) vs. Krawczyk/Sahagun (ASU) - 5-4 (2) Boren/Olmos (USC) def. Jump/Smith (ASU) - 8-2 (3) DeSimone/Katz (USC) def. Osborne/Vlad (ASU) - 8-2 USC wins doubles point. Order of finish: 3, 2 SINGLES (1) #26 Zoë Scandalis (USC) def. #68 Stephanie Vlad (ASU) - 7-5, 6-4* (2) #49 Desirae Krawczyk (ASU) def. Brynn Boren (USC) - 6-1, 6-2 (3) Kassidy Jump (ASU) def. Kaitlyn Christian (USC) - 6-3, 6-4 (4) Gabriella DeSimone (USC) def. Leighann Sahagun (ASU) - 6-2, 6-3 (5) #76 Giuliana Olmos (USC) def. Ebony Panoho (ASU) - 6-3, 6-1 (6) #101 Zoë Katz (USC) vs. Gussie O'Sullivan (ASU) - 6-4, 6-6 (3-1 susp.) Order of finish: 5, 2, 4, 3, 1