TEMPE – The Sun Devil women's tennis team is back on the road this weekend to face the No. 7 Pepperdine Waves and San Diego State Aztecs in Southern California.
Arizona State (4-3) will take on the Waves in Malibu to open the weekend. Pepperdine is coming off of a run to the ITA Indoor quarterfinals where they fell short of taking down No. 3 Duke. In the process of advancing to the round of eight, the Waves (5-1) defeated No. 19 Syracuse 4-3.
"We've played them the last couple of seasons, and this year's team might be a little better and a little deeper than some of the other teams we've faced," coach Sheila McInerney said. "We played some tough matches with them, and this one will be no different."
The Waves lead the all-time series 10-8 and have won the last four matchups, including the last two bouts in Malibu. ASU last clashed with the Waves back in 2017 when then ninth-ranked Pepperdine held off the Sun Devils 4-3 in a rare ASU non-conference home loss.
"We know every match from this point forward gets a lot more difficult and we're looking forward to the challenge," McInerney said. "You have to take it one at a time, so we're focused on Pepperdine right now, then we have a long drive to San Diego to focus on that match."
History is on the Sun Devils' side in this weekend's reprisal of the young rivalry with the Aztecs. The Devils have blanked SDSU in each of the past three seasons, winning 7-0 in 2016, 6-0 in 2017 and 4-0 last season, but all of those results came at the Whiteman Tennis Center where the Sun Devils have dominated in recent years.
San Diego State hosts this year's matchup at the Aztec Tennis Center, where it only lost four times last year and just once this season. The Sun Devils on the other hand are still seeking their first road win, but are nearly back to full strength with the returns of Sasa Klanecek and Lauryn John-Baptiste last weekend in Norman.
"We have a really good team if we're healthy," McInerney said. "It's just a matter of staying healthy. We're going to need everybody from here on out because the schedule just gets harder, but sometimes that's what you need in order to compete at this level of college tennis."
The Devils and Waves hit the courts at 2 p.m. MST on Friday and ASU will travel four hours south to take on San Diego State at 1 p.m. Saturday. To keep up with the matches, follow @SunDevilWTennis on Twitter.