TEMPE – After a tough weekend out east, the Sun Devils return to the comfy confines of the Whiteman Tennis Center where they are unbeaten this season to challenge San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara Friday and Saturday.
"We played two really tough matches last weekend and worked on a few things in practice this week," coach Sheila McInerney said. "We're getting toward the midpoint of the season and we're trying to make sure we're continuing to improve. This weekend is more about making sure we're doing the right things and being tough."
The Devils come into the matches having lost two consecutive regular season matches for the first time since March of last year when they dropped a weekend set against the two Bay Area programs, then No. 4 Stanford and No. 12 California.
If there's one place the Sun Devils want to be to break a slide, it's the Whiteman Tennis Center where they've won 41 non-conference matches and lost only three since 2013.
"I think it's good for us to be back at home playing two good teams," McInerney said. "The weather should be good, and for us we're just concerning ourselves about ourselves and really not the opponents this weekend."
The Devils haven't lost three-straight since Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC came to Tempe in back-to-back weekends back in 2015.
Although the team fell in Lexington and Columbus, true freshman Sasa Klanecek and the doubles duo of Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh kept their perfect records in tact this past weekend.
Klanecek's win streak ended when she couldn't finish off Kentucky's Brianna Tulloch before the match was called, but her unbeaten streak extended to nine appearances when she moved up to court five and defeated Emma DeCoste of Ohio State two days later.
For John-Baptiste/Hattingh, they defeated the Wildcat duo on Friday, and were up 5-1 before Ohio State clinched the doubles point on courts one and three. The two newcomers have been dominant together and have only gone to a tiebreak once this season.
In 17 total meetings, the Sun Devils have only fallen three times to the Aztecs and are a perfect 8-0 against them since 1994.
As for the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara, ASU has won all six of their meetings in program history.
"We played San Diego State last year and they've got quite a few new kids, but they're always competitive," McInerney said. "Simon runs a good program at Santa Barbara and we know we'll have our hands full for sure."
The match with the Aztecs gets started Friday at 1:30 p.m., and the Gauchos take court at noon on Saturday.
Rankings Update
Despite a two-game slide this past weekend on the road against No. 15 Kentucky and No. 10 Ohio State, the Sun Devil women's tennis team stayed in the ITA/Oracle top-35.
The 5-3 Devils are the fourth-highest ranked Pac-12 squad behind the soaring Bruins, who jumped into the top-10 this week, the Ducks of Oregon at No. 22, and Southern Cal – just one spot up from the Devils at 32.
Defending conference champion Stanford and fellow Bay Area squad Cal sit at 40 and 44, respectively.
The last singles update included two Sun Devil women in Lauryn John-Baptiste at No. 84 and No. 107 Savannah Slaysman.
The doubles ranking included two Sun Devil tandems in Savannah Slaysman and Tereza Kolarova, and Kelley Anderson and Nicole Fossa Huergo. Anderson/Fossa Huergo haven't played together since the fall, but the Sun Devils have still had a solid doubles record this spring, winning the point in seven of their eight matches and all five of their wins.
Klanecek Cleaning Up
So far this season, Sun Devil freshman and Slovenia international Sasa Klanecek has been on a tear on court six, holding ASU's longest unbeaten streak of 2018 at eight wins.
Klanecek has been an important piece in each of ASU's dual match victories this season.
She has recorded wins in straight sets on court six in every victory, and typically gives the Sun Devils a 2-0 edge with five singles matches remaining as ASU has only dropped the doubles point once this season.
The freshman moved up to court five in Columbus, but the result remained the same as she won in straight sets against the Buckeye five.
The Sun Devil Six
Coming into the season, coach Sheila McInerney had a roster of eight, but after a couple of key injuries, the Sun Devils have been down to six for the spring season.
Of the six women taking the court for ASU, four of them are newcomers to the squad and only one is a senior in Nicole Fossa Huergo.
True freshmen Sasa Klanecek and Lauryn John-Baptiste have been the most successful of the six this season, compiling a combined dual-match record of 11-2, with Klanecek recording a perfect record through eight matches.
John-Baptiste has been playing on courts one and two in 2018 and has won all four of her matchups this year against ranked opponents.
Sophomore newcomer Ilze Hattingh is a part of a doubles tandem with John-Baptiste that hasn't dropped a match this season, and has helped the Sun Devils win seven doubles points in their eight matches.
One of the two active returners, Savannah Slaysman, got off to a slow start, but has since won six of her last eight matches playing on courts four and five, interchanging with freshman Tereza Kolarova.
Despite having a thin squad, the Devils have won five of eight, and took Nos. 11 and 19 Ohio State and Oklahoma State to the wire on the road, and are unbeaten at the Whiteman Tennis Center in 2018.
"W"hiteman Tennis Center
This weekend, the Sun Devils return home to a place where they have only dropped three contests to non-conference opponents since 2013.
Coach Sheila McInerney's Devils are 5-0 at the Whiteman Tennis Center this season, with three more home non-conference matches to play, including this weekend's opponents.
Although the Devils lost to No. 9 Pepperdine and second-ranked Ohio State last season, they went undefeated in 2016, 2014 and 2013, amassing a lopsided home record outside the Pac-12 of 41-3 in the past five seasons.
The Devils' only other loss in that time frame came in 2015 when they fell to Ohio State the first time.
Get to Know the Aztecs
The 2018 San Diego State Aztecs are coached by Peter Mattera. So far in non-conference play, the Aztecs have a season record of 6-6, with wins against UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, Point Loma Nazarene and Cal Poly.
With their only wins this season coming against schools in the Golden State, the Aztecs are 0-3 against schools outside of California and 0-2 on the road this season, but took two points against Pac-12 powerhouses California and USC.
Get to Know the Gauchos
The UCSB Gauchos women's tennis team is coming off of a hot 2017 season campaign, winning their second straight Big West Tournament title and appearing in the first round of the NCAA Championship Tournament.
Their senior pair of Natalie De Silveira and Palina Dubavets hold the No. 57 spot in the doubles rankings and will likely take to court one Saturday in Tempe.
Santa Barbara is no pushover despite its lack of Power Five status. UCSB is one of just two teams this season to defeat the Trojans of USC, and they took two points off of UCLA in Westwood and Cal in Berkeley. The Gauchos win over USC is Southern Cal's only home loss this season.