Playing against their third-straight ranked opponent, @SunDevilMTennis fell to No. 10 TCU, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
"The goal was always to play the best teams right out of the gate to see where they're at and see where we're at and what we need to improve," coach Matt Hill said. "I thought every match from Duke, to A&M to here, the guys keep looking stronger."
Andrea Bolla and Thomas Wright took court three, also dropping their match to the Horned Frogs, 5-7. The pair of Tim Ruehl and Benjamin Hannestad fought hard on court two, but the match was abandoned, 6-5, after TCU took the doubles point.
"We need to continue spend time on the doubles to get pairings comfortable with each other and get their stylistic stuff down," Hill said. "We have singles guys that need to get settled in who they are and what they do well."
Hannestad dropped the first singles match to Johnson (2-6, 4-6) and Andrea Bolla's match followed soon after, falling in two sets (2-6, 4-6).
Geerts dropped a hard-fought battle to Rybakov on court one (2-6, 4-6), but Will Kirkman scored the first Sun Devil point, outplaying Bertus Kruger in two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Riding the momentum from the win into his match, Ruehl also brought home a point against Guillermo Nuñez, winning a first-set tiebreaker 7-6 and then gliding past the Horned Frog 6-1 in the deciding set.
Grinding till the end for the second game in a row, Rakotomalala dropped his first set 2-6, but battled back to take the second set 7-5. The top-ranked Gray proved to be too much in the final set, taking the win for the Horned Frogs (2-6, 7-5, 4-6) to bring it to the final of 5-2.
Doubles Competition:
Singles Competition:
ASU will next host its ASU Invitational on Feb. 9-10, wtih Cal Poly, Fresno State and LMU coming to Tempe.
"The goal was always to play the best teams right out of the gate to see where they're at and see where we're at and what we need to improve," coach Matt Hill said. "I thought every match from Duke, to A&M to here, the guys keep looking stronger."
The Sun Devils (0-3) got things started in doubles play, dropping two of the three matches while abandoning play on court two. Michael Geerts and Makey Rakotomalala made a pair on court one, finishing first in their loss to Alastair Gray and Trevor Johnson, 2-6.Tim defeats Reese Stalder 7-6, 6-1 ?? pic.twitter.com/xh7M80bJ0K
— Sun Devil M. Tennis (@SunDevilMTennis) January 21, 2018
Andrea Bolla and Thomas Wright took court three, also dropping their match to the Horned Frogs, 5-7. The pair of Tim Ruehl and Benjamin Hannestad fought hard on court two, but the match was abandoned, 6-5, after TCU took the doubles point.
"We need to continue spend time on the doubles to get pairings comfortable with each other and get their stylistic stuff down," Hill said. "We have singles guys that need to get settled in who they are and what they do well."
Down 1-0 going into singles, the Devils faced some of the topped ranked college players in the country, including No. 23 Alastair Gray and No. 31 Alex Rybakov..@williamkirkman wins on court six! ???? pic.twitter.com/fs6dbFloYc
— Sun Devil M. Tennis (@SunDevilMTennis) January 21, 2018
Hannestad dropped the first singles match to Johnson (2-6, 4-6) and Andrea Bolla's match followed soon after, falling in two sets (2-6, 4-6).
Geerts dropped a hard-fought battle to Rybakov on court one (2-6, 4-6), but Will Kirkman scored the first Sun Devil point, outplaying Bertus Kruger in two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Riding the momentum from the win into his match, Ruehl also brought home a point against Guillermo Nuñez, winning a first-set tiebreaker 7-6 and then gliding past the Horned Frog 6-1 in the deciding set.
Grinding till the end for the second game in a row, Rakotomalala dropped his first set 2-6, but battled back to take the second set 7-5. The top-ranked Gray proved to be too much in the final set, taking the win for the Horned Frogs (2-6, 7-5, 4-6) to bring it to the final of 5-2.
Doubles Competition:
- Gray/Johnson (TCU) def. Geerts/Rakotomalala (ASU) 2-6
- Ruehl/Hannestad (ASU) vs. Rybakov/Nuñez (TCU) vs. 6-5 unfinished
- Stalder/Kruger (TCU) def. Bolla/Wright (ASU) 5-7
Singles Competition:
- Rybakov (TCU) def. Geerts (ASU) 2-6, 4-6
- Johnson (TCU) def. Hannestad (ASU) 2-6, 4-6
- Gray (TCU) def. Rakotomalala (ASU) 2-6, 7-5, 4-6
- Ruehl (ASU) def. Nuñez (TCU) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
- Stalder (TCU) def. Bolla (ASU) 2-6, 4-6
- Kirkman (ASU) def. Kruger 6-3, 6-4
ASU will next host its ASU Invitational on Feb. 9-10, wtih Cal Poly, Fresno State and LMU coming to Tempe.