TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Sun Devil women's tennis program, behind head coach Sheila McInerney in her 33rd year, hits their first serves of the 2016-17 season on Friday, Sept. 30 at the Cal Nike Fall Invitational at the Hellman Tennis Complex and Channing Tennis Courts in Berkeley, Calif.
Thirteen programs will participate in the annual three-day tournament hosted by Cal, including the Golden Bears, UCLA, BYU, Cal Poly, Nevada, UC Davis, Fresno State and others. Cal and UCLA -- along with ASU -- are the only teams in the tournament who finished the 2015-16 season in the ITA top-25 rankings.
"It's a great tournament," said McInerney. "You have Cal, who finished second in the country last year, whose whole team plays in it. It's a really good field. I told the team, 'The first tournament provides a lot of opportunities, so the better you're prepared, the better it's going to be for you.'"
The Sun Devils return four women while adding two junior transfers and one freshmen for the upcoming season. As the first tournament of the fall season, McInerney just wants to see progress each day of the tournament.
"From a coaching standpoint, I want to see where they're at. We have two new kids with only one playing this weekend. It's just a matter of seeing how they're going to compete. Some played a lot over the summer and some haven't. We want to get our feet wet and getting back into that competitive spirit. They'll get a minimum of four singles matches and four doubles matches. The goal is to be playing better on Sunday than we were on Friday.
Senior Kassidy Jump -- who primarily played in the No. 2 spot for ASU -- returns with the most experience in singles, and starts the season ranked No. 87 in the ITA preseason poll.
Joining Jump is senior teammates Gussie "The Grinder" O'Sullivan and Pac-12 doubles champoin Alex Osborne. O'Sullivan returns for the 2016-17 season after a career-best 27-6 record in singles on court six. Her match-clinching performance helped seal McInerney's first defeat of Stanford since 2008 and second-ever in program history. Osborne may have lost her doubles partner, Ebony Panoho, that joined her as conference champions and also First-Team All-Americans, but McInerney is confident she won't skip a beat with new partner, freshman Savannah Slaysman.
"I think they'll be a good team, as Alex obviously has a lot of experience and Savannah is quite a good doubles player, especially for a freshman," said McInerney.
Slaysman, a Phoenix-native, dreamt of representing the pitchfork on the court and brings a killer-instinct in doubles that McInerney feels fits perfectly with Osborne's style of play. The rookie committed to ASU as the No. 2 recruit in the state of Arizona and No. 28 nationally according to tennisrecruiting.net.
Juniors Nicole Fossa Huergo and Kelley Anderson will wear the maroon and gold for the first time. Huergo transfers from Division II Armstrong State, where she was a part of the program's back-to-back national championships in 2015 and 2016. During her first two collegiate seasons, she holds a 42-4 record in singles and a 62-6 record in doubles.
Anderson comes to Tempe after spending her first two seasons at Baylor, where she held a 31-20 singles record -- which featured a 27-10 freshman season. She earned NCAA tournament experience after earning a singles point for Baylor in 2015 versus No. 8 Virginia. By the end of the 2015 Big 12 Championship tournament, Anderson earned the most outstanding performer for her 2-0 record in both singles and doubles.
The draw for the tournament will be released the night of Thursday, Sept. 29 and will be posted here.
Thirteen programs will participate in the annual three-day tournament hosted by Cal, including the Golden Bears, UCLA, BYU, Cal Poly, Nevada, UC Davis, Fresno State and others. Cal and UCLA -- along with ASU -- are the only teams in the tournament who finished the 2015-16 season in the ITA top-25 rankings.
"It's a great tournament," said McInerney. "You have Cal, who finished second in the country last year, whose whole team plays in it. It's a really good field. I told the team, 'The first tournament provides a lot of opportunities, so the better you're prepared, the better it's going to be for you.'"
The Sun Devils return four women while adding two junior transfers and one freshmen for the upcoming season. As the first tournament of the fall season, McInerney just wants to see progress each day of the tournament.
"From a coaching standpoint, I want to see where they're at. We have two new kids with only one playing this weekend. It's just a matter of seeing how they're going to compete. Some played a lot over the summer and some haven't. We want to get our feet wet and getting back into that competitive spirit. They'll get a minimum of four singles matches and four doubles matches. The goal is to be playing better on Sunday than we were on Friday.
Senior Kassidy Jump -- who primarily played in the No. 2 spot for ASU -- returns with the most experience in singles, and starts the season ranked No. 87 in the ITA preseason poll.
Joining Jump is senior teammates Gussie "The Grinder" O'Sullivan and Pac-12 doubles champoin Alex Osborne. O'Sullivan returns for the 2016-17 season after a career-best 27-6 record in singles on court six. Her match-clinching performance helped seal McInerney's first defeat of Stanford since 2008 and second-ever in program history. Osborne may have lost her doubles partner, Ebony Panoho, that joined her as conference champions and also First-Team All-Americans, but McInerney is confident she won't skip a beat with new partner, freshman Savannah Slaysman.
"I think they'll be a good team, as Alex obviously has a lot of experience and Savannah is quite a good doubles player, especially for a freshman," said McInerney.
Slaysman, a Phoenix-native, dreamt of representing the pitchfork on the court and brings a killer-instinct in doubles that McInerney feels fits perfectly with Osborne's style of play. The rookie committed to ASU as the No. 2 recruit in the state of Arizona and No. 28 nationally according to tennisrecruiting.net.
Juniors Nicole Fossa Huergo and Kelley Anderson will wear the maroon and gold for the first time. Huergo transfers from Division II Armstrong State, where she was a part of the program's back-to-back national championships in 2015 and 2016. During her first two collegiate seasons, she holds a 42-4 record in singles and a 62-6 record in doubles.
Anderson comes to Tempe after spending her first two seasons at Baylor, where she held a 31-20 singles record -- which featured a 27-10 freshman season. She earned NCAA tournament experience after earning a singles point for Baylor in 2015 versus No. 8 Virginia. By the end of the 2015 Big 12 Championship tournament, Anderson earned the most outstanding performer for her 2-0 record in both singles and doubles.
The draw for the tournament will be released the night of Thursday, Sept. 29 and will be posted here.