STANFORD/BERKELEY – Sun Devil men's tennis hits the road again, this time kicking off Pac-12 play in the Bay Area against No. 7 Stanford and California. First serve with Stanford is set for March 8 at 4 p.m. MST while the Cal match is set for March 9 at 3 p.m. MST. Fans can keep up with the action all season long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
ASU played two extremely competitive games in Tempe last season versus the two conference foes, and Matt Hill expects nothing less of his squad this time around:
HEAD COACH MATT HILL:
We've been playing really good doubles so far this year, and part of it is adding three guys to our lineup this year who weren't in it last year in Justin Roberts, Nathan Ponwith and Dominik Kellovsky.
As for our returners, they have a year under their belt and have learned a lot more about doubles in that time period. With doubles, it's not something they typically learn a lot as young player, so there's a huge learning curve when they come to college. Their level can grow pretty quickly just by learning some basics like tactics and core positioning.
All three of our pairs are very, very good doubles teams. We're very even all the way through, and that's why they all have national rankings and be able to beat quality opponents. Us being the only Pac-12 school with three ranked teams in the top-55 says a lot about the depth of our doubles. It's a good stat for us too because the ability to win the doubles point is a huge factor when trying to beat the top teams.
We feel like that Stanford match kind of got stolen from us last season. Not in a bad way – Stanford didn't do anything wrong – but because we felt like we had a lot of the control in our match and we let it slip a little. You're always eager and hungry to get back on that same team to try to beat them the next time, so the guys are excited about Stanford.
It was the same thing with Cal where we had them on the ropes when the rain came last year. Then they nipped us in the finals of the Indian Wells Tournament last year which was frustrating for us. We're extremely hungry to go into this weekend and continue to make our presence known within the conference.
I would say we are more poised to beat them this time around than we were last year because we have more depth. We're dangerous at every spot, and we're starting to play some really good tennis is what we're seeing in training. There's no reason for that to not transfer to the court.
We beat a really tough San Diego team a week ago, and they're very good. We feel like we're in a really good place and we're excited for the weekend ahead.
Stanford has a younger group this year compared to last year, so they're less experienced. As it relates to college tennis, the group they recruited are a very good group of players, they're just a younger squad.
They've had some good wins, they're well-coached and they know what they're doing on the courts. It's going to be a tough test no matter whether they have freshmen in the lineup or an experienced group of seniors like they had last year.
On our side, we feel like every spot is starting to click well, which is exciting and key for us. We didn't have a lot of that in the beginning of the year: We've been clicking in some spots and the other spots haven't been sharp due to other things outside of our control. We're starting to see good tennis all through the courts which is a good sign. That's what we want to have happening and we want to see that continue to progress.
We've been really impressed with the way Andrea has been playing. He continues to impress us on a daily basis. It's no surprise, but we've been seeing some really great tennis from him. Justin has been really playing well this week. He's getting into his top form.
Nathan is putting a lot of work into his game, and it's showing. The areas that he needed to invest in, he's investing in. He's listening and getting better in those categories, and that equals more results. He's a special kid with a lot of tools and a lot of skill sets. We have a lot of guys on the court that we have a high level of trust in in tough situations, and he's definitely one of them. We're excited for not only this weekend for him, but the rest of the season. We think he's going to do some really big things.
ASU played two extremely competitive games in Tempe last season versus the two conference foes, and Matt Hill expects nothing less of his squad this time around:
HEAD COACH MATT HILL:
We've been playing really good doubles so far this year, and part of it is adding three guys to our lineup this year who weren't in it last year in Justin Roberts, Nathan Ponwith and Dominik Kellovsky.
As for our returners, they have a year under their belt and have learned a lot more about doubles in that time period. With doubles, it's not something they typically learn a lot as young player, so there's a huge learning curve when they come to college. Their level can grow pretty quickly just by learning some basics like tactics and core positioning.
All three of our pairs are very, very good doubles teams. We're very even all the way through, and that's why they all have national rankings and be able to beat quality opponents. Us being the only Pac-12 school with three ranked teams in the top-55 says a lot about the depth of our doubles. It's a good stat for us too because the ability to win the doubles point is a huge factor when trying to beat the top teams.
We feel like that Stanford match kind of got stolen from us last season. Not in a bad way – Stanford didn't do anything wrong – but because we felt like we had a lot of the control in our match and we let it slip a little. You're always eager and hungry to get back on that same team to try to beat them the next time, so the guys are excited about Stanford.
It was the same thing with Cal where we had them on the ropes when the rain came last year. Then they nipped us in the finals of the Indian Wells Tournament last year which was frustrating for us. We're extremely hungry to go into this weekend and continue to make our presence known within the conference.
I would say we are more poised to beat them this time around than we were last year because we have more depth. We're dangerous at every spot, and we're starting to play some really good tennis is what we're seeing in training. There's no reason for that to not transfer to the court.
We beat a really tough San Diego team a week ago, and they're very good. We feel like we're in a really good place and we're excited for the weekend ahead.
Stanford has a younger group this year compared to last year, so they're less experienced. As it relates to college tennis, the group they recruited are a very good group of players, they're just a younger squad.
They've had some good wins, they're well-coached and they know what they're doing on the courts. It's going to be a tough test no matter whether they have freshmen in the lineup or an experienced group of seniors like they had last year.
On our side, we feel like every spot is starting to click well, which is exciting and key for us. We didn't have a lot of that in the beginning of the year: We've been clicking in some spots and the other spots haven't been sharp due to other things outside of our control. We're starting to see good tennis all through the courts which is a good sign. That's what we want to have happening and we want to see that continue to progress.
We've been really impressed with the way Andrea has been playing. He continues to impress us on a daily basis. It's no surprise, but we've been seeing some really great tennis from him. Justin has been really playing well this week. He's getting into his top form.
Nathan is putting a lot of work into his game, and it's showing. The areas that he needed to invest in, he's investing in. He's listening and getting better in those categories, and that equals more results. He's a special kid with a lot of tools and a lot of skill sets. We have a lot of guys on the court that we have a high level of trust in in tough situations, and he's definitely one of them. We're excited for not only this weekend for him, but the rest of the season. We think he's going to do some really big things.