TEMPE – Arizona State took a short break from conference play a week ago to take down the LMU Lions in Tempe, but the Sun Devils are back on their tour of the Pacific Coast this weekend to take on a surging 22nd-ranked Oregon side Sunday in Eugene.
"They've added a couple of new players and had a pretty great year," Sun Devil head coach Sheila McInerney said. "They've beaten three top-25 teams, so their ranking is justified, and they've got three lefties on their team, so that's a little unusual, but it just means we're going to have to play well like always."
The Ducks (10-6, 1-3 Pac-12) come into the match having dropped three straight to Washington State, UCLA and USC on consecutive weekends after winning their first Pac-12 matchup of the season against Washington back on March 9.
Oregon's No. 1 singles player, Alyssa Tobita, has had herself a great senior season and is ranked No. 102 in the most-recent Oracle/ITA rankings. With her rank and status on the squad, court one in Eugene will likely be another ranked match for true freshman Lauryn John-Baptiste.
It will be John-Baptiste's second-straight ranked opponent as last week she knocked off No. 30 Veronica Miroshnichenko of Loyola Marymount to clinch the match win for the Devils at home. The meeting in Tempe was John-Baptiste's fifth ranked foe of the season and she will take her 5-0 record into Eugene.
The Devils rebounded in a big way in doubles play a weekend ago, and ASU will look to keep that trend going against the Ducks, who also field one of the better doubles tandems in the Pac-12 and in the nation.
With unbeaten and newly ranked No. 48 John-Baptiste/Hattingh expected to be on court one, and No. 35 Kolarova/Slaysman on court two, the Devils have as good a chance as any school to take the doubles point from the Ducks.
"It really is one match at a time in the Pac-12," McInerney said. "There's not that much difference between the lot of the teams. This one is tricky because it's on the road, but I think we've played well on the road."
ASU has been dominant against the Ducks since the turn of the century, winning 16 of their last 17 matchups, including last year's meeting in Tempe, 4-1.
The match gets going at 11 a.m. PT Sunday and will be live streamed on GoDucks.com. For live results, check out GoDucks.com and follow @SunDevilWTennis on Twitter.
Rankings Update
A successful home stint against Loyola Marymount and five-straight wins has Arizona State moving up in the latest Oracle/ITA poll where this week they sit at No. 35, two spots higher than last week's table.
Coming in at 35, the Devils are the fourth-highest ranked Pac-12 program of the six in the top-50. No. 13 UCLA and this weekend's opponent Oregon check in at Nos. 15 and 22, and defending conference champion Stanford is just outside the top-25 at 26.
Behind the Devils are No.39 Washington State and No. 47 Washington, and in the Pac-12 standings, ASU sits in second-place behind the Cardinal.
After defeating the, at the time, 30th-ranked woman in the NCAA from Loyola Marymount last weekend, Lauryn John-Baptiste soared 30 places to No. 56 in the latest singles rankings. Savannah Slaysman also improved her ranking to 108.
In doubles, the reassembled team of Kolarova/Slaysman checked in at No. 35, and unbeaten duo John-Baptiste/Hattingh jumped back into the rankings to 48 after they took down a ranked duo in their first outing on court one.
How Sweep it is: John-Baptiste, Geerts take Pac-12 Honors
The freshman England international, Lauryn John-Baptiste earned her second Pac-12 Player of the Week honor for her outstanding performance this past weekend at home that included a win over the 35th-ranked woman and 28th-ranked doubles duo in the NCAA.
With the honor, she becomes the first woman this season to claim it twice and only the third Pac-12 tennis player regardless of gender to claim multiple of-the-week honors in 2018 along with Geerts and one other player from Stanford.
John-Baptiste herself soared nearly 30 spots in the latest Oracle/ITA poll to 56 for her win in straight-sets over LMU's Veronica Miroshnichenko who actually entered the weekend clash at 30 and unbeaten against ranked opponents. Both the Sun Devil and Lion freshman met on court one with unblemished records against ranked women Saturday, and John-Baptiste kept hers intact, moving to 5-0 in 2018 with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
In doubles play, John-Baptiste is half of the No. 48 squad with fellow newcomer Ilze Hattingh. Together, they have amassed an 11-0 record and have been bumped up to court one for their stellar start to the season.
Fearsome Sixsome
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 17-3, with Klanecek recording a perfect record through her 10 matches, until a loss to Colorado.
John-Baptiste has been playing on courts one and two in 2018 and has won all five 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 10 doubles points in their 13 matches.
One of the two active returners, Savannah Slaysman, got off to a slow start, but has since won six of her last 10 and losing only twice in that span.
Despite having a thin squad, the Devils have won 10 of 13 and sit near the top of the Pac-12 standings after the first two weeks of conference play. They took Nos. 11 and 19 Ohio State and Oklahoma State to the wire on the road, and remain unbeaten at the Whiteman Tennis Center in 2018.
Get to know the Ducks
The No. 22 Ducks are led by fourth-year head coach Alison Silverio and Oregon came into 2018 off the wings of their best season in over a decade.
Their 10-6 record this season includes wins over No. 5 Northwestern, No. 28 Baylor, No. 50 William & Mary and hard-fought losses to No. 17 Kansas, No. 6 Georgia Tech and No. 2 Pepperdine.
U of O has one ranked woman in singles in Alyssa Tobita at No. 102, and two of the top 80 doubles squads in Tobita/Sangwan (24) and No. 80 Eshet/Sangwan.