TEMPE – The Sun Devil women's tennis team took care of a shorthanded NAU side, 5-0, to complete its season-opening homestand and move to 3-0 on the season Monday at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
Northern Arizona (1-1) only sent five active players to the courts Monday, giving Arizona State an early 1-0 advantage in the match score, and a 1-0 edge in doubles play before things got underway in Tempe. The Jacks won with only five women in their season-opener Sunday, but the Sun Devils took advantage of the early lead and made quick work of the reigning Big Sky champions.
"You love to start off winning, and especially at home with nice weather and the home crowd behind you," head coach Sheila McInerney said. "I think this long weekend will help us in the long run as the season carries on and competition gets more intense."
No. 8 John-Baptiste/Hattingh clinched the doubles point for ASU. They defeated Tomasetti/Sosnowska 6-3 for their second win of the season. Alicea/Slaysman were up 4-3 when play was suspended, but did not need to finish their match because of NAU's default on court three.
Up 2-0 heading into singles, ASU needed just two more wins to clinch the match and record the their third-straight sweep of the season.
While Lauryn John-Baptiste found herself in a scrum with Chiara Tomasetti on court one, the rest of the Devils took the first set comfortably with Ilze Hattingh winning 6-4 on court two, and Savannah Slaysman, Tereza Kolarova and Samantha Alicea all winning 6-2 on courts three through five.
Slaysman was the first to start the second set, but Hattingh beat her to the third point as she dominated Ellie Millard to take the match 6-4, 6-2.
Minutes later, Slaysman clinched the match for the Devils for the second time in this young season by defeating Emilie Haakansson 6-2, 6-4. Kolarova's match also finished moments after Slaysman sealed the win to give ASU a 5-0 advantage.. Alicea was in a second-set battle that was tied 4-4 when play ended.
"It's good to just get these matches under our belt and let the young kids get some experience before things start ramping up," McInerney said. "We've still got some kids out that we need to get healthy. Hopefully we'll have Sasa back for the Kickoff, which will help us a lot, but we're just taking it one day at a time."
With the opening homestand in the books, the Devils will head out East to the Palmetto State to take on Wake Forest in a neutral setting for the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
"We'll have to step it up a lot next weekend because the competition is really tough," McInerney said. "We'll play a good Wake Forest team that we lost to in the tournament last year, and this year's team is even better than last year with some of the additions they've made."
Northern Arizona (1-1) only sent five active players to the courts Monday, giving Arizona State an early 1-0 advantage in the match score, and a 1-0 edge in doubles play before things got underway in Tempe. The Jacks won with only five women in their season-opener Sunday, but the Sun Devils took advantage of the early lead and made quick work of the reigning Big Sky champions.
"You love to start off winning, and especially at home with nice weather and the home crowd behind you," head coach Sheila McInerney said. "I think this long weekend will help us in the long run as the season carries on and competition gets more intense."
No. 8 John-Baptiste/Hattingh clinched the doubles point for ASU. They defeated Tomasetti/Sosnowska 6-3 for their second win of the season. Alicea/Slaysman were up 4-3 when play was suspended, but did not need to finish their match because of NAU's default on court three.
Up 2-0 heading into singles, ASU needed just two more wins to clinch the match and record the their third-straight sweep of the season.
While Lauryn John-Baptiste found herself in a scrum with Chiara Tomasetti on court one, the rest of the Devils took the first set comfortably with Ilze Hattingh winning 6-4 on court two, and Savannah Slaysman, Tereza Kolarova and Samantha Alicea all winning 6-2 on courts three through five.
Slaysman was the first to start the second set, but Hattingh beat her to the third point as she dominated Ellie Millard to take the match 6-4, 6-2.
Minutes later, Slaysman clinched the match for the Devils for the second time in this young season by defeating Emilie Haakansson 6-2, 6-4. Kolarova's match also finished moments after Slaysman sealed the win to give ASU a 5-0 advantage.. Alicea was in a second-set battle that was tied 4-4 when play ended.
"It's good to just get these matches under our belt and let the young kids get some experience before things start ramping up," McInerney said. "We've still got some kids out that we need to get healthy. Hopefully we'll have Sasa back for the Kickoff, which will help us a lot, but we're just taking it one day at a time."
With the opening homestand in the books, the Devils will head out East to the Palmetto State to take on Wake Forest in a neutral setting for the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
"We'll have to step it up a lot next weekend because the competition is really tough," McInerney said. "We'll play a good Wake Forest team that we lost to in the tournament last year, and this year's team is even better than last year with some of the additions they've made."