TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona State women's tennis program is off to a hot start to the 2016 season, and will aim to continue that success against the University of San Diego on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Whiteman Tennis Center at noon.
"We saw them in the fall and in Palm Springs last month, and they're a tough opponent," head coach Sheila McInerney said. "They have a lot of international student-athletes so it's a team that is going to make you play. They're quick, fast and they get a lot of balls back. So we're going to have to be patiently aggressive and expect a tough match for sure."
Through four regular season matches, the No. 27 Sun Devils are 3-1 with victories over Notre Dame, then-No. 43 Princeton and UTEP. They're one loss was a 4-2 match against No. 25 Northwestern.
Senior Desirae Krawczyk has shot up the recent rankings since the January singles release due to her Palm Springs Invitational tournament victory, moving from No. 75 to No. 36.
Junior Kassidy Jump has also vaulted into the national rankings as she sits at No. 98 in the country.
Krawczyk's doubles teammate, senior Stephanie Vlad, is scheduled to return to the courts for the first time this winter as well.
The match with San Diego is also a small reunion, as assistant coach Nadia Abdala was a Sun Devil tennis player from 2006-2010 under coach McInerney. McInerney speaks highly of her former student-athlete and even attended her wedding in July.
"She's one of the best," McInerney said.
After their match on Saturday, the Sun Devil women will have a quick turnaround as they travel to California to face No. 17 Pepperdine in Malibu on Monday, Feb. 15.
"We played them last year and they beat us, but they're significantly better this year," McInerney said. "They have probably the best freshman in the country who is right now ranked No. 6. They beat then-No. 4 USC not long ago.
"I think they're a top-10 team so we're expecting a really tough one over there and we're going to have to play really well to win."
Despite their record and the recent success, ASU has not moved in the national rankings thus far. Coach McInerney says she isn't worried being that the computer rankings don't kick in for a few weeks.
"Knock on wood, if we beat San Diego on Saturday and Pepperdine on Monday, then you sort of have taken care of that because they already have a couple good wins," McInerney said. "We're ranked exactly where we should be and you play a long season. We have a lot of opportunities ahead of us and we have to take advantage of those."
You can watch Saturday's match with San Diego here.