TEMPE – As the Pac-12 season winds down for the Sun Devils, Arizona State makes its penultimate road trip to challenge the No. 41 Trojans and 15th-ranked Bruins.
"It's another weekend with two good teams, and they're both at home, so that makes it tougher," coach Sheila McInerney said. "Certainly after this weekend though, beating the two Washington schools who are good, we've got some confidence going into the matches."
The Sun Devils' first opponent will be the UCLA Bruins, who just completed a trip into the mountains with two wins over Utah, in a tight 4-3 affair, and a sweep of the Buffaloes. USC did the same, taking down CU 6-1 and outclassing the Utes in Salt Lake City 4-1.
ASU comes into the weekend on a three-match win-streak that includes wins over three opponents ranked in the top-50 in Washington, Washington State and California.
The three-straight wins came at home where the Devils finished the season with a 10-1 record, but this weekend's matchup sends them on the road where they have gone 2-4 and played indoors on every occasion.
The Bruins are stacked in singles play to say the least. With five women ranked in the Oracle/ITA top-125, UCLA leads the conference in the category, and their No. 1 singles player sits at 16th, making her the second-highest ranked singles player in the Pac-12 behind Stanford's No. 1 who checks in at 15. As for the women of Troy, USC brings two ranked women to the courts Friday.
"We've got UCLA first and they're good top to bottom," McInerney said. "They had a couple of injuries early on, but they've got a full lineup and they're playing well. SC is the same way. They're much better than their ranking suggests."
Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh are still the highest-ranked doubles tandem from Tempe, as they checked in at No. 21 after another perfect week of results. The duo is 14-0, and once again will face two more ranked pairings in Los Angeles.
One half of that duo, Hattingh had one of her best outings of the season against the Cougars and Huskies as she toppled No. 63 Vanessa Wong and Guzal Yusupova in singles play to add to her perfect weekend on doubles court one.
Historically, ASU has had a tough time in L.A., taking only three wins against the Trojans at home since 2000. The story is the same in Westwood as the Devils have won only two since the new millennium. ASU recently ended a drought against the Bruins last season and last beat USC in 2011.
This situation is a familiar one for the Devils, though. They recently defeated Cal for the first time in seven years in dominating fashion two weekends ago in Tempe.
The matchup in Westwood gets started at 1:30 p.m. PT Friday and the Devils play in Downtown L.A. Saturday at noon.
Rankings Update
A weekend sweep of Washington State and Washington shot the Sun Devils up six places in the latest Oracle/ITA Rankings to No. 33.
The ranking matches the Devils' place in the conference as ASU is the fourth-highest ranked Pac-12 program behind this weekend's opponent No. 15 UCLA, conference leader No. 21 Stanford and 30th-ranked Oregon. Behind the Devils are No. 37 Washington State, 41 Southern California, and No, 45 California.
Fourteen wins and no losses has helped Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh's partnership secure a spot in the top-25 for the first time this season at No. 21.
Kolarova/Slaysman also stayed in the top-50, falling to 49 with their weekend split.
In the singles rankings, John-Baptiste was ASU's sole representative at No. 53.
It Takes Two
Lauryn John-Baptiste didn't start the season as doubles partners, but it didn't take long for the two to turn into something special in their first season as Sun Devils.
The duo won their first outing as a tandem then seven-straight before their first unfinished match.
Since the beginning of the dual-match season, Hattingh and John-Baptiste have won 14 matches and lost none. Their impressive unbeaten streak has put them at No. 21 in the nation, and as the fourth-highest ranked duo in the Pac-12.
Individually, John-Baptiste is 53rd in the country with an 9-4 record while Hattingh has a 7-6 record on court two.
Get to know the Trojans
A perennial Pac-12 powerhouse, the Trojans haven't quite been the dominating side they are used to being in the past two seasons despite advancing to the NCAA Championships last season and owning an 11-7 record under first-year coach Alison Swain.
SC has made four straight Sweet 16 appearances and two Final Four runs between 2012 and 2015, but haven't advanced past the round of 32 since.
This season, Southern Cal is led by No. 48 Gabby Smith and 98th-ranked Rianna Valdes on courts one and two. Angela Kulikov and the aforementioned Valdes combine to make the No. 46 doubles duo in the nation as well.
Against like opponents, the Trojans are 8-4 with a split with Cal, a win over Oregon and losses to Washington State and UC Santa Barbara while the Devils lost to UO but defeated both WSU and UCSB. ASU is 9-2 against the same schedule.
Get to know the Bruins
Arguably the deepest program in the Pac-12, Stella Sampras Webster's 23rd iteration of the Bruins has five ranked women in the Oracle/ITA ranking, and is on the brink of an 18th top-10 finish in the past two decades.
The 15th-ranked women from Westwood are 14-4 this season and their only losses have been to teams in the top-25 in No. 6 Mississippi, No. 11 Oklahoma State, 13th-ranked Texas Tech and No. 22 Stanford.
Three of their last four wins have been sweeps with a 4-3 win over Utah being the only match in which they surrendered points.
While UCLA has been the better of the two sides in matchups with ASU since their first meeting, the Devils won last year's matchup in a thrilling 4-3 home victory at Whiteman Tennis Center.