TEMPE -- In fitting fashion, the three Arizona State seniors finished strong with three victories to propel the No. 26 Sun Devils (15-4, 6-1) to a 6-1 victory over Washington State (17-6, 2-5) on Saturday.
"I thought today was a really good test for us," said head coach Sheila McInerney. "We knew Washington State was going to come out and compete. They're a good team and they're feisty. Doubles was tough. Eb and Alex played quite well on court one."
All three doubles matches were tight from the get go, but the Australian duo of senior Ebony Panoho and junior Alex Osborne -- ranked No. 22 in the country -- finished Donika Bashota and Victoria Matejevic, 6-3.
On court two, senior duo of Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad were slow to start, but brought it back to five-all.
Just as they were making their move for the comeback win, the freight train of junior Kassidy Jump and freshman Sammi Hampton decided winning their 15th-straight doubles match was more important. Jump and Hampton got down 2-3, but rallied for four-straight points to win 6-3. The doubles victory became the Devils' 10th-straight and 17th out of 19 this season.
Singles started off even across the board, with the Cougars showing signs of life.
"In singles, we lost the first set on courts one, two and three," said McInerney. "We split the first sets and it was tight."
WSU would clinch the first singles point of the match, as Maria Biryukova defeated Jump in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
From then on, it was all Sun Devils. Krawczyk and Panoho both bounced back after losing their first sets to win their second and third. Krawczyk won her second and third over Bashota, 6-2, 6-2 to win her 95th-career game at ASU. Panoho grinded it out a little more against Trang Huynh, winning 6-3, 6-4 in sets two and three.
After winning the first set, Hampton was forced to play a third as Lize Leenknecht of Wazzou won the second set 6-5. The tough-fought second motivated Hampton to a 6-0 sweep of the third for the match-clinching fourth point.
The Devils' 6-1 victory became their ninth-straight win. While the series was the last one of the regular season at home, the women still have three road matches to go starting at No. 20 UCLA and No. 27 USC next weekend.
"I think going on the road to play USC and UCLA is never easy, but I think the girls are looking forward to it and feel pretty confident," said McInerney. "That being said we know it's going to be a test, so we're going to have to go out there and play no holds-barred and play to win. Hopefully good things will happen."
The two victories at home all but sealed the Devils spot in the NCAA tournament, but they are still playing to potentially host an NCAA Regional.
"I think there's a lot of incentive in the last three matches," said McInerney.
The Devils will play the Bruins on Friday, April 8 in Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. PT, while turning around for a date with the Trojans on Saturday, April 9 at 1 p.m. PT.
ASU last won on the road at USC in 2011, while it's been 16 years since the Devils knocked off UCLA in L.A.
#26 Arizona State - 6, #62 Washington State - 1 Whiteman Tennis Center Tempe, Ariz. Saturday, April 2Doubles:
1. #22 Panoho/Osborne (ASU) def. Bashota/Matejevic (WSU) - 6-3
2. Krawczyk/Vlad (ASU) vs. Leenknecht/Huynh (WSU) - 5-5 (Aband)
3. Jump/Hampton (ASU) def. Biryukova/Miksovska (WSU) - 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 3
Singles:
1. #24 Desirae Krawczyk (ASU) def. Donika Bashota (WSU) - 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. Maria Biryukova (WSU) def. #66 Kassidy Jump (ASU) - 6-4, 6-3
3. Ebony Panoho (ASU) def. Trang Huynh (WSU) - 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
4. Stephanie Vlad (ASU) def. Aneta Miksovska (WSU) - 6-2, 6-3
5. Sammi Hampton (ASU) def. Lize Leenknecht (WSU) - 6-3, 5-7, 6-0
6. Gussie O'Sullivan (ASU) def. Victoria Matejevic (WSU) - 6-1, 6-2
Order of Finish: 2, 6, 4, 5, 1, 3