Arizona State University Athletics

TUCSON, Ariz. – No. 47 Sun Devil men's tennis continues conference play looking to secure a crucial Territorial Cup Series Point this Saturday in Tucson. The No. 25 Wildcats and Sun Devils are set to face off at 1 p.m. MST down south.

"It's been a great week of training and the guys are excited for this match and look forward to it," coach Matt Hill said. "While we like to treat all matches the same, it's difficult to do this for this match. They get so excited to play these guys, so it's going to be a really fun one." 
 
The Sun Devils enter the weekend after three hard-fought matches last time out, two against top-10 opponents. ASU opened the three-match weekend with a quick win over Incarnate World Friday morning in Waco, securing the 4-0 victory in a little over an hour.
 
ASU went up against No. 6 Baylor later that evening, taking the first point from the Bears in part by No. 18 Dominik Kellovsky/Nathan Ponwith's big upset win over No. 1 Sven Lah/Jimmy Bendeck. The overall match went to a 2-1 Sun Devil lead late, but Baylor took three-straight singles matches to clinch the win.
 
"Nathan and Dominik have been really clutch for us because it's not easy to play No. 1 doubles against our schedule by any means," Hill said. "Not only are they doing it, but they're doing it very well. They had a great win the other night over the No. 1 pair in the country and went unfinished up 5-2 in the tiebreak against the No. 6 team on Sunday."
 
Back out on Sunday against No. 10 TCU, ASU again took the doubles point. The clinch was their 11^th of the season through 17 matches so far, a feat they did not achieve until their final regular season match in 2018. ASU has eight more regular season matches scheduled this season.
 
Justin Roberts shined in singles play over the weekend, going 3-0 to extend his win streak to a season-long five matches. Roberts secured a quick singles win in game one on Friday in a little under an hour and came back later that evening to glide past No. 82 Will Little in straight sets for his third win over a ranked opponent this season. The Bahamian finished up the weekend with a comeback 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory against No. 10 TCU.
 
"Justin is an incredible player, but he also is a player who needs reps, rhythm and time," Hill said. "It took some time to get his feet under him, but now that he does, he can beat anyone in the country for sure."
 
Building on strong doubles play, all three active doubles pairs are on win streaks with No. 56 Andrea Bolla/Tim Ruehl winning two straight while No. 18 Ponwith/Kellovsky and Makey Rakotomalala/Roberts both won last time out.
 
The Sun Devils and Wildcats both faced off last season with ASU working to a quick 4-0 sweep of Arizona. Arizona boasts a stronger squad this time around, sitting at the No. 25 spot in the Oracle/ITA rankings versus going unranked in last season's matchup.
 
"Arizona returned a lot of their guys and brought in a really good recruit who's playing at the top of their lineup," Hill said. "They're young and doing a good job, and they're taking care of a lot of their matches."
 
First serve with Arizona is set for Sat., March 30 at 1 p.m. MST in Tucson. Fans can keep up with the action all season-long by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.