TEMPE – Arizona State won seven of its final eight matches to finish the regular season above .500 for the 25th-straight season and will head into the Pac-12 Championship as the No. 6 seed where the Devils will open their postseason push against 11-seed Oregon Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Ojai, California.
Wednesday's tournament opener will be a replay of a match that took place only two weeks ago in Tempe. In their last meeting, the Sun Devils defeated the Ducks 6-1.
With a win in Ojai, ASU would score two wins over Oregon in one season; a feat that has not been accomplished by the Sun Devils this century.
Just like their previous meeting, ASU will lean on top-ranked doubles tandem Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh to help get the early advantage. Unseated for one week and pushed back to No. 2, John-Baptiste/Hattingh returned to the No. 1 spot in the latest Oracle/ITA doubles ranking after knocking off the Wildcats' No. 76 duo, 6-1, last weekend.
The Sun Devils have been one of the most consistent teams in the nation in scoring the doubles point, winning at least two out of the three doubles courts and taking the early dual-match lead in 17 of their 21 outings.
Their first-round opposition Oregon ended Pac-12 play without a win in conference, but a team with a winless conference slate is not uncommon among a field as deep as the Pac-12 is. Oregon is the fifth team in six years to finish the season winless in the league, joining 2018's Arizona squad, Washington State in 2017 and 2015, and the 2014 Colorado program. Each of the those teams improved in the following season with WSU making the biggest improvement by jumping six places from 2017 to 2018.
First-year coach Courtney Nagle's Ducks are one of the younger squads in the conference, fielding only one senior in court one's Daniela Nasser.
The last time the two teams played, ASU won on five of the six singles courts while Oregon only took court five. This time around, though, the Devils won't have home-court advantage and in neutral site matches this season, ASU is 0-2 with both losses coming during the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Columbia, South Carolina.
The 2019 Pac-12 Women's Tennis Team Championships will have live results provided by the conference. The link can be found on thesundevils.com, the Pac-12 website, or on @SunDevilWTennis on Twitter.
Results and a recap of the performance in Ojai will be available online following the completion of play against the Ducks Wednesday afternoon.
John-Baptiste/Hattingh Back at No. 1
After a week at the the No. 2 spot, the Sun Devil duo of Ilze Hattingh and Lauryn John-Baptiste regained the highest ranking in the nation in the latest Oracle/ITA doubles ranking.
With 14 wins and just two losses on the season, the All-American squad has been on a tear for ASU on court one this season. Ten of their 14 wins this season have come over ranked opponents, including a mid-season win over the current No. 2 tandem from Southern California.
Along with the top-ranked tandem, the Devils also field No. 72 Alicea/Hampton, who have only lost one match since Feb. 16 and seven-straight.
John-Baptiste and Hattingh are also ranked in the singles version of the poll with the former checking in at 103 and the latter at 112.
Last Time Out
The Arizona State women's tennis team ended its regular season on a high note when it swept in-state rival Arizona 4-0 to secure the Territorial Cup Series point.
The win at Whiteman Tennis Center improved the Sun Devils to 12-9 heading into the postseason, and was the exclamation point on a season-ending run that saw the Devils win seven of their final eight matches to finish with a record above .500 for the 25th-straight season under legendary head coach Sheila McInerney.
Saturday's match started the way most of the Sun Devils' matches started this season. ASU won the doubles point for the 17th time in their 21-match season.
No. 2 John-Baptiste/Hattingh led the way with their quick 6-1 win on court one over the No. 87 tandem, and No. 67 Alicea/Hampton followed shortly after with a 6-3 win.
The Devils headed into singles play with a lead and didn't look back, taking three singles wins and wrapping up their 12th win of the season before Arizona had a chance to notch a point of their own.
Savannah Slaysman got off the courts first as she sat down Gitte Heynemans 6-1, 6-3 on court five.
Just like in doubles, court one's Ilze Hattingh had no trouble taking down Wildcat senior Emma Wilson in identical 6-1 set wins.
Sammi Hampton and Lauryn John-Baptiste both won their first sets 6-3 on courts four and two, respectively, but the second sets were more of a battle. John-Baptiste went back and forth with Camila Wesbrooks, eventually knotting the match at 5-5.
Hampton was up big in the second, but her opponent fought back to make things interesting at 5-4. Hampton got on a roll in the 10th game of the set and eventually won the match and clinched the 4-0 sweep on an ace.
The Opposition: Oregon
A tournament team a season ago, the Ducks are in a bit of a transition period under first year head coach Courtney Nagle, formerly an assistant at one of the nation's premier programs North Carolina.
Nagle, a Duck alumna, took over in July of 2018, and though the Ducks sit at 7-15 and winless in the Pac-12 season heading into the conference championships, the groundwork is being laid Eugene.
Oregon had one doubles tandem ranked in the top-90 with Allison Mulville and Rifanty Kahfiani, and Oregon has played teams closely, so the contest will be no walkover.
A young team, UO has only one senior on its roster in Daniela Nasser. The 2018 Pac-12 honorable mention player has five singles wins this season, playing on courts one and two.
The Sun Devils took down the Ducks 6-1 in Tempe two weeks ago, so both programs have their last matchup fresh in their memories.
A win for the Devils would give them two wins over Oregon in one season, a feat that hasn't been accomplished yet this century.
Pac-12 Women's Tennis Team Championships | Round One Lineups
| #6 Arizona State Sun Devils | #11 Oregon Ducks |
| Doubles | Doubles |
| No. 1 John-Baptiste/Hattingh | Kahfiani/Wagner |
| No. 72 Alicea/Hampton | Nasser/Mulville |
| Kolarova/Slaysman | Eshet/Fujimori |
| Singles | Singles |
| No. 112 Ilze Hattingh | Daniela Nasser |
| No. 103 Lauryn John-Baptiste | Rifanty Kahfiani |
| Tereza Kolarova | Paiton Wagner |
| Sammi Hampton | Julia Eshet |
| Savannah Slaysman | Allison Mulville |
| Samantha Alicea | Taryn Fujimori |