March 31, 2004
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ON TAP: Fresh off their best win of the season over No. 26 Harvard, the Arizona State women's tennis team (5-10; 0-3 Pac-10) will play their final two home duals of the 2004 season as they play host to No. 6 Washington (15-3; 2-1 Pac-10) on Friday, April 2 at 1:30 p.m. and Washington State (5-10; 1-2 Pac-10) on Saturday, April 3 at 12:00 p.m. The Sun Devils will look to get back into Pac-10 contention as both duals count towards the overall standings.
LAST TIME OUT: ASU snapped a three dual losing streak by cruising past 26th-ranked Harvard, 6-1, to post their highest-ranked dual win of the season. The Devils started the day off well in doubles with Kady Pooler and Lauren Colalillo easily winning, 8-2, over Courtney Bergman and Preethi Mukundan. Rebecca Rankin and Joslynn Burkett followed, taking an 8-4 win as well as the doubles point from the Crimson. In singles, the Devils pulled together to take five of the six matches with Cindy Sureephong finishing first with a quick 6-2, 6-1 win over Alexis Martire. Almost all of her fellow Devils followed her lead as junior Lauren Colalillo, who pushed every set against Melissa Anderson into a tiebreaker, came from behind to win it in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 1-0 (0).
HEAD COACH Sheila McInerney: Sheila McInerney enters her 20th season after leading last year's team to its seventh consecutive (15 of the past 16 seasons) NCAA Round of 16 appearance and a No. 17 national ranking. McInerney also guided Arizona State to eight quarterfinal appearances in her tenure, and has made the NCAA tournament in 18 of her 19 seasons. The 2003 season saw McInerney accomplish another milestone in her illustrious career, earning her 300th career win. She also coached another player to All-American acclaim and helped place four players on the Pac-10 All-Academic teams, tying a school record for most student-athletes selected. McInerney, who owns a career record of 306-189, posted three 20-win seasons (1986, '90, '01) to her credit and guided the Sun Devils to 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Sun Devils have reached the NCAA quarterfinals eight times under McInerney and have finished in the top-10 five of the past seven seasons and an astounding 13 times in her 19 seasons.
YOUNG/NEW FACES: McInerney welcomed six freshmen players to this year's team with many of them having contributed in both the singles and doubles lineups: Ebru Burduroglu (Istanbul, Turkey), Sabrina Capannolo (Las Vegas, Nev.), Wendy Pilecka (Pribram Czech Rep.), Kady Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.), Rebecca Rankin (Purley, England), Vana Tomas (Split Croatia).
TOUGH LUCK: The young Devils are having a difficult time this season closing out duals. ASU's last five losses have been by just one point, all to highly-ranked teams.
HOME SWEET HOME: Over the past six seasons, Arizona State holds an impressive 67-26 (.720) overall dual record at the Whiteman Tennis Center, while posting a 47-20 (.701) mark the past four seasons. The Devils non-conference record is even more impressive over the past six seasons with a 59-16 (.787) mark.
SCHEDULE STRENGTH: Once again the Devils will face a strong non-conference slate (maybe the strongest ever) along with the always powerful Pac-10 Conference. Fifteen of ASU's 21 opponents earned NCAA bids last year, while 15 of ASU's opponents this year are in the top-25. Additionally, the Pac-10 comprises five of the nation's top-11 teams.
DEVILS IN THE RANKINGS: For the first time since the 1996 season, the Sun Devils are not ranked in the top-25 as they fell to No. 50 in the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, administered by the ITA. The freshmen doubles team of Kady Pooler and Rebecca Rankin are 41st, while Cindy Sureephong and Wendy Pilecka are 50th in the country.