MALIBU, Calif. -- The Arizona State women's tennis program lost a nail-biter against No. 17 Pepperdine despite an upset by doubles duo Ebony Panoho and Alexandra Osborne.
The No. 27 Sun Devils battled through a grueling afternoon against the best team they've faced thus far, but the Waves clinched in the fifth singles match to eventually win 4-3.
"I thought we did some good things today, we started really strong," head coach Sheila McInerney said. "Winning the doubles point certainly was good. Alex and Eb had a great win against the 3rd-ranked team in the country. Kas and Sammi closed it out at number three doubles which gave us some good momentum going into the singles."
That they did, as the women were off to a great start thanks to a big win by Panoho and Osborne over No. 3 Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox.
Just like the entire match, Pepperdone pushed it down to the wire even in doubles, but junior Kassidy Jump and freshman Sammi Hampton continued their recent success together with a 7-5 win to give the Sun Devils the first point of the afternoon.
As singles began, several women got out to a hot start for ASU.
Hampton won her fifth-straight singles match with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Runglerdkriangkrai to put the Devils up 2-0.
From there, the Waves rolled on to win four-straight points -- before junior Gussie O'Sullivan won the seventh and final point -- to clinch the match.
"All 6 singles were really competitive," McInerney said. "It was nice for Sammi to get off the court quickly to get a 2-0 lead. We had some opportunities in the remaining matches, we just couldn't close them out in the end. Certainly a disappointing result, as I think we had the match in our hands. Give Pepperdine credit as they competed really well and were just a little bit tougher in the end."
The Sun Devil women enjoy the next four days off in preparatIon for San Jose State and Long Beach State at home this Saturday and Sunday.
#17 Pepperdine 4, #27 Arizona State University 3
Feb 15, 2016 at Malibu, Calif. (Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center)
SINGLES
1. #6 STEFANI, Luisa (PEP) def. #36 KRAWCZYK, Desirae (ASU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-0
2. GULBE, Laura (PEP) def. #98 JUMP, Kassidy (ASU) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6)
3. CUTURA, Matea (PEP) def. PANOHO, Ebony (ASU) 6-3, 6-3
4. #67 MILOVANOVIC, Dzina (PEP) def. VLAD, Stephanie (ASU) 6-3, 7-5
5. HAMPTON, Sammi (ASU) def. RUNGLERDKRIANGKRAI,A (PEP) 6-3, 6-4
6. O'SULLIVAN, Gussie (ASU) def. CAPANNOLO, Michaela (PEP) 5-7, 6-2, 10-6
Order of finish: 5,3,4,1,2,6
DOUBLES
1. #54 PANOHO, Ebony/OSBORNE, Alexandra (ASU) def. #3 CUTURA, Matea/MADDOX, Christine (PEP) 6-4
2. #18 STEFANI, Luisa/RUNGLERDKRIANGKRAI,A (PEP) def. KRAWCZYK, Desirae/VLAD, Stephanie (ASU) 6-2
3. JUMP, Kassidy/HAMPTON, Sammi (ASU) def. #57 GULBE, Laura/MILOVANOVIC, Dzina (PEP) 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3