OJAI, Calif. -- The Arizona State doubles pair of senior Ebony Panoho and junior Alex Osborne upset the 4-seeded duo of Giuliana Olmos and Gabby Smith of USC on Saturday morning to advance to the Pac-12 Doubles Championship match on Sunday afternoon. The appearance by the two becomes the first Sun Devil doubles team to make the championship match since sisters Laila Abdala and Nadia Abdala appeared in the final game in 2009.
Panoho and Osborne -- ranked No. 22 in the country -- made it look easy against the No. 7 pair in the ITA, cruising to a 6-2 victory.
"Ebony and Alex played solid tennis with very few errors, and yet were extremely aggressive at the same time," said head coach Sheila McInerney. "The USC team is ranked No. 7 in the country, so that was a great win for them."
The victory becomes the fourth of the season against a team currently ranked in the top-10. The Australian Sun Devils defeated then-No. 3 Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox of Pepperdine, then-No. 3 Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle of Stanford and then-No. 5 Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips of UCLA. They even had a 6-5 lead over then-No. 4 Anna Sanford and Miho Kowase of Ohio State before the doubles point was clinched and it went unfinished.
"They play traditional aggressive doubles, which a lot of these teams do not," said McInerney in regards to the duo's success against top-ranked teams. "Eb and Alex are more comfortable at the net than most of their opponents. More 'old school' doubles, which is fun to watch."
Sunday's championship bout will be against Stanford's second duo of Melissa Lord and Carol Zhao, who upset 3-seed Harrison and McPhillips from UCLA in the quarterfinal round in a 10-point tiebreak. The match will begin on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT.
On the invitational side of the bracket, 2-seed Kassidy Jump and Sammi Hampton decided they didn't want to be left out. The two defeated Barbora Michalkova and Aneta Miksovska of Washington State 6-3 to advance to their championship final on Sunday at 11 a.m.
The No. 88-ranked pair will take on Terri Fleming and Alaina Miller of UCLA in the championship match.
"Kassidy and Sammi continue to improve with each match and are becoming a formidable duo," said McInerney. "They have great chemistry on the court and play with a lot of energy.
"Both teams played really well today."
Panoho and Osborne's match will be aired live on Pac-12 Network at 1 p.m. PT, but not on Pac-12 Arizona.