OJAI, Calif. -- The No. 22 Arizona State women's tennis team (17-5, 8-2) begins Pac-12 Championship play at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club with singles starting on Thursday, April 21. Unlike most conferences, the conference divides the tournament into singles and doubles to crown the best individual and duo in the Pac-12.
Thirty-two players -- three from the top 10 teams in conference and two from the 11th place team -- will enter the single-elimination bracket format to crown the Pac-12 singles champion. The 16-team women's doubles tournament will feature the top team from each of the 11 schools and five more selected by the Draw Committee. There will also be invitational brackets for both singles and doubles kept separate from the championship bracket. The Pac-12 women will play the first two rounds at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club, and then will play the semifinals and finals at Libbey Park.
"The girls will play two singles matches to start on Thursday and obviously the competition is going to be really strong," said head coach Sheila McInerney. "If you can survive two singles matches, then that means you're playing really well. For us we know we're in the NCAA tournament and this is a good way to hone in our skills and get ready.
"I think the kids are excited about it and it's a tournament the girls enjoy playing in."
The No. 22 Sun Devils (17-5, 8-2) had their best conference record in McInerney's 32 seasons and their best finish in the Pac-10/12 standings since 1998. The last time the Sun Devil women's tennis team had a better conference record was in 1979 under ASU legend Anne Pittman when they went 12-4.
Ranked No. 22 in doubles, senior Ebony Panoho and junior Alex Osborne enter the doubles championship bracket with a lot to hang their hat on. During the regular season, they went 3-1 against conference opponents along with six unfinished matches. Two of their three victories came against No. 5 Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle of Stanford and No. 6 Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips of UCLA.
"I think for them it's just a matter of taking care of business," said McInerney. "They can be up and down -- when they're good, they're really good. So it's just a matter of them being a little bit more consistent than they've been at times."
In singles, No. 28 Desirae Krawczyk, No. 119 Kassidy Jump and Panoho will all play in the singles championship bracket.
Krawczyk holds an 8-3 record throughout the course of the fall and spring against the Pac-12's top players, including two victories over No. 40 Davidson of Stanford and No. 50 Lauren Marker of Arizona. She also defeated No. 17 Harrison of UCLA, No. 67 Donika Bashota of Washington State, No. 95 Kennan Johnson of Oregon, No. 106 Nour Abbes of Washington and No. 120 Nuria Ormeno Ruiz of Colorado.
In each of the last two years, Krawczyk has advanced to the quarterfinals while also making it to the round of 16 in her freshman season.
Entering conference play, Krawczyk also sits in fourth on the ASU all-time singles victories with 95. She'll look to inch closer to that 100 mark. Her record in 2015-16 is 24-10.
Jump has also had great success against some of the top players in the conference at the No. 2 spot, with victories over No. 12 Klara Fabikova of California and No. 82 Doyle of Stanford. She enters the tournament with a 22-13 record on the season.
The draw for singles and doubles will be done Wednesday, April 20 and released on the morning of Thursday, April 21.
The women’s singles championship match will be played on Sunday at Libbey Park at 10 a.m. and will be followed by the doubles final. Sunday’s singles championship will be broadcast live on all seven Pac-12 Networks and online at pac-12.com/live at 10 a.m. The women’s doubles final will air tape-delayed at 7 p.m.