OJAI, Calif. – Fresh off their L.A. road trip to finish off the regular season, No. 28/23 Sun Devil men's tennis looks to make a quick turnaround straight back to the Golden State, this time for the 2019 Pac-12 Championships. ASU rolls into Ojai as the fifth seed and looks to take on No. 4 seed Cal for the third time this season in the opening round.
"We're in match rhythm right now because we've been playing a lot and liking what we're seeing on the courts," coach Matt Hill said. "The guys are in good shape and physically and mentally ready. It was good to come home to get some school stuff taken care of, and now we're refocusing on the tennis aspect of everything."
First serve for the match on Thursday is set for 9 a.m. MST at Libbey Park in Ojai. The matchup is the third in 2019 between the Sun Devils and Golden Bears after the two faced off in Berkeley in early March and again at the Oracle Collegiate Challenge mid-March. Cal took the first appearance while ASU took the second and looks to take the rubber match as well.
"Having played Cal twice already is definitely a good thing because we do pride ourselves on being well-prepared for matches," Hill said. "We tape every match that we play, so we have two sets of film on them which is always a good thing because we'll use it to be as prepared as possible for the match."
The Sun Devils finished up the regular season against the L.A. schools, dropping both matchups with No. 14 UCLA and No. 10 USC, 4-2. Andrea Bolla emerged from the weekend undefeated after going 2-0 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles play as well. The Italian has now won five-straight – including six of his last eight – to total 10 singles wins on the season, eclipsing the eight he put up last season.
"Andrea is a really hard worker on the training court, so it's great to see that hard work paying off," Hill said. "He's continuing to learn about himself as a player and his game, and I feel like he's really figuring that out for the first time. We believe he can be by far one of the best players in college tennis, so it's great to see him on that path."
Aside from excelling in singles play, Bolla and doubles partner Tim Ruehl have been performing at an insane clip and haven't lost a match since March 15 against No. 13 Michigan. The run gives the tandem a nine-match win streak and victories in 13 of their last 14 matches as a pair.
"They compliment each other so well because Tim is incredibly gifted as it comes to reading the game, his anticipatory skills and hands at the net while Andrea has so much power and can hit any shot on the court," Hill said. "It's fun to see them play together because they work together so well personality-wise and have a high level of respect for each other."
Since taking down the No. 1 ranked doubles pair in the country against No. 6 Baylor, the Devils duo of Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky have also shined in doubles play. The pair are 6-1 since the upset, peaking as high as No. 8 in the Oracle/ITA rankings to make them the highest-ranked Arizona State doubles pair since 1991.
ASU sits at 13-12 as a team at the conclusion of the regular season, similar to the record they held at this point last season. Looking back, the Sun Devils faced off against 16 teams ranked by the Oracle/ITA poll, including six of the current top-10 in No. 1 Ohio State, No. 4 Wake Forest, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 7 TCU, No. 8 Baylor and No. 10 USC to conclude one of the toughest regular-season schedules in the country.
"We believed we would have a really strong group, so we scheduled accordingly and will always schedule difficult matchups," Hill said. "This year was particularly difficult with so many matchups on the road, but I thought we did a really good job with the cards we've been dealt. We've had a lot of adversity thrown our way this year, and I think the guys did an awesome job of absorbing that to push forward and come together as a group."
The Sun Devils begin their Pac-12 Championships run this Thursday at 9 a.m. against No. 35 Cal. The match will be streamed on Pac-12 Bay Area, and fans can keep up with the action all postseason long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
"We're in match rhythm right now because we've been playing a lot and liking what we're seeing on the courts," coach Matt Hill said. "The guys are in good shape and physically and mentally ready. It was good to come home to get some school stuff taken care of, and now we're refocusing on the tennis aspect of everything."
First serve for the match on Thursday is set for 9 a.m. MST at Libbey Park in Ojai. The matchup is the third in 2019 between the Sun Devils and Golden Bears after the two faced off in Berkeley in early March and again at the Oracle Collegiate Challenge mid-March. Cal took the first appearance while ASU took the second and looks to take the rubber match as well.
"Having played Cal twice already is definitely a good thing because we do pride ourselves on being well-prepared for matches," Hill said. "We tape every match that we play, so we have two sets of film on them which is always a good thing because we'll use it to be as prepared as possible for the match."
The Sun Devils finished up the regular season against the L.A. schools, dropping both matchups with No. 14 UCLA and No. 10 USC, 4-2. Andrea Bolla emerged from the weekend undefeated after going 2-0 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles play as well. The Italian has now won five-straight – including six of his last eight – to total 10 singles wins on the season, eclipsing the eight he put up last season.
"Andrea is a really hard worker on the training court, so it's great to see that hard work paying off," Hill said. "He's continuing to learn about himself as a player and his game, and I feel like he's really figuring that out for the first time. We believe he can be by far one of the best players in college tennis, so it's great to see him on that path."
Aside from excelling in singles play, Bolla and doubles partner Tim Ruehl have been performing at an insane clip and haven't lost a match since March 15 against No. 13 Michigan. The run gives the tandem a nine-match win streak and victories in 13 of their last 14 matches as a pair.
"They compliment each other so well because Tim is incredibly gifted as it comes to reading the game, his anticipatory skills and hands at the net while Andrea has so much power and can hit any shot on the court," Hill said. "It's fun to see them play together because they work together so well personality-wise and have a high level of respect for each other."
Since taking down the No. 1 ranked doubles pair in the country against No. 6 Baylor, the Devils duo of Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky have also shined in doubles play. The pair are 6-1 since the upset, peaking as high as No. 8 in the Oracle/ITA rankings to make them the highest-ranked Arizona State doubles pair since 1991.
ASU sits at 13-12 as a team at the conclusion of the regular season, similar to the record they held at this point last season. Looking back, the Sun Devils faced off against 16 teams ranked by the Oracle/ITA poll, including six of the current top-10 in No. 1 Ohio State, No. 4 Wake Forest, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 7 TCU, No. 8 Baylor and No. 10 USC to conclude one of the toughest regular-season schedules in the country.
"We believed we would have a really strong group, so we scheduled accordingly and will always schedule difficult matchups," Hill said. "This year was particularly difficult with so many matchups on the road, but I thought we did a really good job with the cards we've been dealt. We've had a lot of adversity thrown our way this year, and I think the guys did an awesome job of absorbing that to push forward and come together as a group."
The Sun Devils begin their Pac-12 Championships run this Thursday at 9 a.m. against No. 35 Cal. The match will be streamed on Pac-12 Bay Area, and fans can keep up with the action all postseason long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.